Foreign Oscar Watch: Bedouin Marriage, Persian Haunting, Slavic Space Program
Friday, September 23, 2016 at 8:45PM Yesterday at an unusually tense and controversial Ophir Awards ceremony, Sand Storm won the Israeli Oscar and will thus be Israel's Oscar submission. The debut female director Elite Zexer, giving the last acceptance speech of the evening, spoke about how she employed Jews, Muslims, and Christians on the picture.
Though I already think Israel should have won the Oscar in this category (for Late Marriage which was submitted but not nominated in the year of Amelie and No Man's Land) and they've had high quality films in the mix before, I'm a little cool on this particular picture. Ah well, you can't love everything!
The UK's submission is a horror thriller set in IranAs more and more titles are announced for the Foreign Oscar Race, the variety of genres keeps growing, too. We have animated films, horror thrillers, docu-fiction hybrids, political dramas, romantic comedies, crime films, as well as submissions from this particular category's three all time favorite subgenres: 1) WW II Anything, 2) Internationally Famous Auteur Made It, and 3) Emotional Journeys Featuring Young Child/Children Forming Bond and/or Travelling With Old Person/Persons.
Beyond Israel's submission the past few days have brought us a Persian horror film submitted by the UK called Under the Shadow, Canada's third attempt at getting Oscar voters to love Xavier Dolan with It's Only the End of the World, Slovenia's docu-drama about America's interest in the Yugoslavian space program in the 1960s, Iceland's family drama Sparrows (which curiously marks the fourth year in a row that country has sent a film with an animal in the title), a big budget Pakistani effort about poets in two different eras called Mah e Mir, and Hong Kong's hit crime drama Port of Call starring Aaron Kwok. You can read about all 73 titles on the charts.
We've reviewed 11 of the 73 titles announced thus far (with more reviews soon) In case you missed any of those reviews, here's the list:
With the caveat that i have MANY more submissions yet to see, my four favorites (to date) are the entries from Chile, Bosnia, Singapore, and Estonia
- Death in Sarajevo - Bosnia & Herzegovina's politically-loaded hotel drama
- Mother - Estonia's black comedy about a very popular comatose man
- Elle - France's twisted comedy about a woman who reacts strangely to a rape
- Chevalier - Greece's satire on competitive masculinity
- Sand Storm - Israel's feminist drama (their first submission entirely in Arabic) about women in unhappy marriages
- Fire at Sea - Italy's documentary on the migrant crisis
- A Flickering Truth - New Zealand's doc on a quite unusual subject: film preservation in Afghanistan
- Apprentice - Singapore's prison drama on capital punishment
- My Life as a Courgette - Switzerland's animated film about orphaned/abused children
- As I Open My Eyes - Tunisia's youth drama about musicians struggling with the lack of freedom of expression they're allowed
- From Afar - Venezuela's violent intergenerational LGBT romance
Four of the submissions this year are in theaters in the US or about to hit: Australia's Tanna and South Korea's The Age of Shadows are now in theaters in select cities; Sweden's A Man Called Ove opens next Friday; and on October 14th we get one of the most high-profile competitors in Mexico's Desierto starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Foreign Oscar regular / international star Gael García Bernal. (Bernal also leads Chile's excellent submission from Pablo Larraín called Neruda; we fully expect Larraín to have two films in the Oscar running since he also directed Jackie). Desierto is directed by Alfonso Cuarón's 34 yr old son Jonás, who co-wrote Gravity with his dad. Will you try to catch these films in theaters?
Reader Comments (17)
Speaking of foreign film submissions... what's your take on Julieta? I don't think I've read much on it on the site (unless that's still on your watchlist!)
Carlos - still on my watchlist. seeing in next two weeks i think
Cool. Looking forward to hearing what you make of it. I had mixed feelings about it, but also can't stop thinking about it - similar reaction as to Broken Embraces, actually.
As usual, Argentina is waiting until the very last minute. There are no stand-out films to choose from, really. Only maybe The Distinguished Citizen, starring Oscar Martinez of Wild Tales. He won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival. Reviews have been generally good, but friends whose opinion I value have seen it and tell me it doesn't have what it takes to make the short-list.
"A Man Called Ove" is kind of a broadish comedy with a heart, but if this is the best Swedish movie this year it has been a really bad year...
Thanks so much for these updates. I love the Foreign Language Film race and love reading the developments.
France and Italy both have several high-profile titles in the mix. Looking forward to hearing and seeing what they select.
Pakistan is submitting Mah e Mir as their Oscar entry.
Raheel -- it's on the chart!
Kirenaj -- well, many countries do not necessarily submit their best. Like any votes on artistic / cultural / export merit it's highly political and subjective.
Looking for your review of Ma'Rosa (Philippines), even just for the Cannes-winning actressing by Jaclyn Jose.
I saw Under the Shadow at SXSW, it was of my favs from the festival and recommend it without reservations, but I don't see the academy going for it.
The new Xavier Dolan (that I hope to see this weekend), "Just the end of the world", will represent Canada.
I saw Neruda today, a biopic that is not a biopic. The last ten minutes are breathtaking.
I really hope some people go and see TANNA. It's so gorgeous and such a good movie. Alas, the Pacific region is even less revered for its cinema in the eyes of the Academy than Asia, so I doubt they'll go near it.
Man, I really didn't like FROM AFAR.
What are we thinking JACKIE will mean for NEDUDA. Surely it will help having him out there on the campaign trail, but I think The Orchard has NERUDA and how happy with Fox Searchlight be with him potentially sharing the spotilght between two films.
I have screeners sitting here of several of these films. It's just a matter of actually finding the time to watch them!
Glenn - i will try to see TANNA but they're not making it easy. It's only showing once a day here in Manhattan at one theater so I'm assuming it'll be gone by next Friday.
ESTONIA's "Mother"!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3
I saw "Sparrows" a few days ago. It's a beautiful film about adolescence and its rites of passage. The final shot is breathtaking. But I think it's too slow and austere for Academy's taste
Nathaniel - Did you see the new Xavier Dolan at TIFF ? I feel like if Mommy couldn't make it then this one won't.