New International Submissions: Georgia, Luxembourg, and Taiwan

by Nathaniel R

Beginning

We have three more official submissions for Best International Feature Film at the forthcoming Oscars, bringing the number up to nine, and one of them is streaming on Netflix for your pleasure or cathartic misery as the case may be... 

Georgia has selected Beginning, the mesmerizing but difficult debut film from Dea Kulumbegashvili that Jason just reviewed right here from the New York Film Festival. It's about a small Jehovah Witness family who are attacked by their neighbors which sets the wife to unravelling. We suspect it has a decent shot at being an Executive Committee choice (though a nomination will be a harder get). With this news, more female directed films have been submitted thus far than male directed films -- how about that? Georgia has been submitting since 1996. They were nominated with their first submission, A Chef in Love, but have not returned to Oscar's favor since with the exception of the finalist status for Corn Island in 2014. It's worth noting that one of the very best submissions last season, was And Then We Danced, which was set in Georgia and in the Georgian language but it was actually Sweden's submission (the director Levan Akin is Georgian-Swedish.) 

Luxembourg has selected the documentary River Tales by Julie Schoell which is a very international choice. Schoell is from Luxembourg but works in Germany and this is a documentary in Spanish about Nicaragua, the history of the San Juan river, and a Chinese businessman. Luxembourg has been submitting since 1997 and have yet to be nominated. Their submissions have been in eight different languages and the genres have been all over the place: animated films, documentaries, comedies, crime dramas, you name it.

A Sun

Taiwan has selected the family drama A Sun, which is currently streaming on Netflix. It's about parents struggling with two sons, one of them imprisoned. A Sun won 5 Golden Horse Awards -- Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor, and Editing -- last November at the ceremony in Taipei. This is the second time Taiwan has chosen a Chung Mong-hong film to represent them at the Oscars. He was previously submitted in '13 for his horror film called Soul / 失魂 . 

Since Taiwan has a sizeable Oscar history, let's discuss...

Taiwan's Oscar Stats
Submitting since 1957 (second year of the category)
46 Total Submissions 
3 Nominations (and 1 Additional Finalist)
1 Win (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

Key Submissions Over the Years 

• Execution in Autumn (Lee Hsing, 1972) 5 wins at the Golden Horse Awards
• Growing Up (Chen Kunhou, 1983) the film that kicked off the "New Taiwan Cinema" movement though it wasn't until 1989 when international recognition began to arrive
• A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1989) Venice Golden Lion winner
• A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991) another critical darling
• The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee, 1993) Nominee
• Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994) Nominee
• Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1998) a critical darling
• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000) Winner
• Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, 2003) a critical darling
• Cape No 7 (Wei Te-sheng, 2008) this romantic musical drama was a record breaking blockbuster at the Taiwanese box office
• Warriors of the Rainbow (Wei Te-sheng, 2011) Oscar Finalist but missed the nomination
• The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2015) Cannes prize for Best Director 

Most Submitted Directors:  

1. Ang Lee (3 submissions, all nominated and one of them winning. Taiwan tried to submit Lust, Caution but AMPAS claimed it wasnt Taiwanese enough so he would have had four submissions if they hadn't interfered with their arbitrariness... given that they allowed The Wedding Banquet in its year which has a lot of English and takes place in NYC)
2. Hsou Hsiao-hsien, Lee Hsing and Chen Kounhou (3 submissions each without a nomination)
3. Tsai Ming-Liang, Chung Mong-hong, Wei Te-sheng, and Ting Shan-hsi (2 submissions each without a nomination)

Comments

[CCA]

Justo to note that Georgia's entry 'Beginning' swept the awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival that ended last week. It took home best picture, director, actress and secreenplay.

[ajnrules]

I've been trying to watch the Taiwan submissions over the year so of course I streamed A Sun. It is an emotionally devastating film with a glimmer of hope at the end. I don't anticipate a nomination since the Academy seems to ignore any films not by Ang Lee, but it's definitely worth watching.

[Rod]

I also really loved A Sun. Definitely recommend it.