by Nathaniel R
We aim to maintain our title of 'the site that gives you the most when it comes to Oscar's Best International Feature Film race.' Nevertheless, even if we aren't that anymore with all the corporate sites and the indies now covering the race, at least we were influential in popularizing the coverage! That's a legacy we're proud of.
Speaking of popular. How many of the films have stars that movie-savvy folks will recognize? Let's look at the international stars with fanbases outside their home countries (and other areas of trivia interest) after the jump...
Submissions with internationally-familiar stars
Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Doctor Strange, Casino Royale) headlines Denmark's excellent binge-drinking drama Another Round which hopes to become his fourth time starring in an Oscar nominee in this category following After the Wedding (2006), A Royal Affair (2012), and The Hunt (2013). In addition to those nominated films he's starred in two other Danish submissions which weren't nominated: Open Hearts (2002), and Adam's Apples (2005).
Shira Haas (photographed by Eyal Nevo)
Israel's Asia stars Shira Haas who was recently Emmy nominated for her breathtaking work in the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox. She previously co-starred in Natalie Portman's In Love and Darkness, the Jessica Chastain movie The Zookeeper's Wife, the barely released Rooney Mara/ Joaquin Phoenix movie Mary Magdalene, and Foxtrot, an Israeli finalist for the 2017 Oscar (though it didn't go the distance to a nomination). All of that and she's only 25 years old.
Stellan Skarsgård
Norway's Hope stars internationally ubiquitous Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Stellan Skarsgård (Thor, Chernobyl, Mamma Mia, Pirates of the Caribbean). The sixty-nine year old Swede never stops working in Scandinavian cinema or in English language productions (he already has over 130 credits on IMDb). Next up: voice work for a Swedish animated movie, villain duties in Dune (2021) and then an appearance on the Disney plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Gong Li
China's Leap stars the legendary Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha, Ju Dou) who also co-starred in Disney's thwarted-blockbuster Mulan this year.
Javier Camara
Colombia's Memories of My Father (sometimes called Forgotten We'll Be) stars Spain's Javier Cámara, well known to arthouse audiences for his Almodóvar films (Bad Education, I'm So Excited, and Talk to Her)
Denis Lavant (photographed by Stéphane de Sakutin)
Ivory Coast's Night of Kings features the enduringly strange and always memorable French actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Lovers on the Bridge, Beau Travail) in a key role, walking around with a pet chicken. Because of course!
Hiam Abbas
Palestine's Gaza Mon Amour co-stars Hollywood TV and film regular Hiam Abbas (Munich, Blade Runner 2049, Succession, Ramy).
Lee Byung-hun
South Korea's The Man Standing Next stars Lee Byung Hun (The Magnificent Seven, Terminator Genisys) who works regularly in English-language action cinema in addition to his Korean films and TV series.
Lars Eidinger (photographed by Stefan Klüter)
You'll also probably recognize Lars Eidinger, whether you not you know his name. He's a German actor who works regularly in French, German, and English-language films (recent high profile arthouse releases include Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper, High Life, and Proxima). He stars in My Little Sister from Switzerland. (He also co-stars in Persian Lessons which was submitted by Belarus but disqualified because the Academy felt that not enough of its artistic team was actually Belarusian)
And in the category of "possible breakouts" you might remember Ukraine's Alec Utgoff from his supporting role as "Dr Alexei" on the third season of Stranger Things or small roles in action films like San Andreas or Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit. If you do, you won't be prepared for his sexy leading-man charisma in Poland's Never Gonna Snow Again as an enigmatic massage therapist who a suburban town becomes rather obsessed with.
OKAY ON TO GENRES AND STATS...
The Mole Agent (Chile)
Submissions which are actually documentaries
7 of the 93 entries this year might also compete for nominations in Best Documentary Feature (depending on eligibility rules there, which are different). They are: Brazil's Babenco: Tell Me When I Die, Chile's The Mole Agent, Italy's Notturno, Kenya's The Letter, Luxembourg's River Tales, Romania's Collective, and Venezuela's Once Upon a Time in Venezuela.
Song Without a Name (Peru)
Submissions with LGBTQ characters in major roles
6 of the 93 films hold special interest for the LGBTQ+ community. Czech Republic's Charlatan, Finland's Tove, France's Deux, Peru's Song Without a Name, and Switzerland's My Little Sister all have queer characters as leads or secondary leads. We'd also argue that Poland's Never Gonna Show Again qualifies since the protagonist's sexuality (like so much else about him) is presented as an enigma.
Impetigore (Indonesia)
Submissions of uncommon genres for this particular Oscar category
Malaysia's Soul and Indonesia's Impetigore are both horror movies. Egypt's When We're Born is the lone musical among the submissions. There is occassionally an animated title in the mix but no animated films were submitted this year.
The Auschwitz Report (Slovakia)
Submissions which deal with World War II
World War II was once the easily dominant subgenre for this category. That's no longer true as it recedes further into history. Only 2 of the 93 films are directly about World War II -- which we believe to be an all time low, numerically speaking, for this category -- and both are more specifically about the Holocaust; Serbia's Dara in Jasenovac and Slovakia's The Auschwitz Report take place in concentration camps. War trauma is all over many of the other films, though they're dealing with different wars, massacres, civilian suppression and other violent tragedies.
Extra-Curricular (Croatia)
Submissions which deal with terrorism
5 of the 93 films? There could be others we aren't aware of, plot-wise. Georgia's Beginning is about a Jehovah Witness community who are attacked by locals, first with arson and then more personal targeted attacks. Croatia's Extra-Curricular is about a man taking his daughter's high school class hostage with a rifle, Germany's And Tomorrow the Entire World is about antifa youth investigating local Neo-Nazis. Finally, Italy's documentary Notturno and Lebanon's drama Broken Keys both deal with terrorism in the Middle East.
Scales (Saudi Arabia)
10 Shortest Films
- Saudi Arabia's Scales - 74 minutes
- Brazil's Babenco: Tell Me When I Die - 75 minutes
- Albania's Open Door - 78 minutes
- Bolivia's Chaco - 80 minutes
- Slovenia's Stories from the Chestnut Woods - 81 minutes
- Costa Rica's Land of Ashes - 82 minutes
- Luxembourg's River Tales (in Spanish) - 82 minutes
- Malaysia's Soul - 83 minutes
- [TIE] Chile's The Mole Agent and Kenya's The Letter - 84 minutes
What to make of the fact that almost half of the shortest list is Spanish-language features?
A Sun (Taiwan)
10 Longest Films
- Taiwan's A Sun - 2 hours and 36 minutes
- Spain's The Endless Trench - 2 hours and 27 minutes
- Cameroon's The Fisherman's Diary - 2 hours and 23 minutes
- Japan's True Mothers - 2 hours and 20 minutes
- Pakistan's Circus of Life - 2 hours and 18 minutes
- Kazakshtan's The Crying Steppe - 2 hours and 17 minutese
- [TIE] Colombia's Forgotten We'll Be and Nigeria's The Milkmaid - 2 hours and 16 minutes
- [TIE] Hong Kong's Better Days and China's Leap - 2 hours and 15 minutes
What to make of the fact that more than half of the longest movies list is from Asian countries?
WE'LL DISCUSS THE DIRECTORS TOMORROW.
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