International Feature: "Titane" and other new Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

If you've missed Oscar submission announcements we've covered all of them from Croatia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Israel, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, Ecuador, Serbia, Switzerland, though Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Peru, and on to Spain. We've reviewed nine other entries including films from Cambodia (White Building), Colombia (Memoria), Finland (Compartment No 6), Germany (I'm Your Man), Japan (Drive My Car), Morocco (Casablanca Beats), Poland (Leave No Traces), and Taiwan (The Falls). Now we have five more announcements to "consider" the highest profile new contender being France's Titane, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. But let's take the five new options alphabetically by country after the jump...

AUSTRIA
Austria who last won with Amour (2012) is submitting a gay prison drama called Sebastian Meise's Great Freedom which is about a man who survives the concentration camps only to be immediately imprisoned post-war for his homosexuality. As previously noted this film stars the charismatic German actor Franz Rogowski (Transit, Undine) who is having a very busy year.

FRANCE
The French finalists included a police drama BAC Nord and a sensational abortion drama Happening (which took the Golden Lion at Venice), but France decided to take a leap of faith this year and went with their highest profile film despite it being a risky choice. They will be submitting the gory sexual fever dream Titane which took the Palme d'Or this summer at Cannes. The film is currently in limited release in the US thanks to NEON and has earned a strong $1 million already despite the lack of regular moviegoing at the moment. NEON took Parasite all the way to four Oscar wins before the pandemic... can they work big magic for this even more improbable contender in even more difficult circumstances for art films? We've reviewed Titane here twice via Jason at NYFF and Elisa at Cannes.

GEORGIA
Georgia will send Levan Koguashvili's father/son dramedy Brighton the 4th which is about a wrestler travelling to see his son in Brooklyn who's gotten into trouble by gambling. Koguashvili was submitted once before for 2010's Street Days. Georgia has only been nominated once and interestingly enough it was for their first submission A Chef in Love (1996).

NORTH MACEDONIA
Macedonia has selected the teenage drama Sisterhood, a feature debut from Dina Duma which is about two troubled girls whose behavior leads to a dire situation. Macedonia was nominated quite recently with the documentary Honeyland (2019).

TUNISIA
Abdelhamid Bouchnak's Golden Butterfly will represent Tunisia though we haven't yet been able to find any information on this one or any film stills from the movie. It premieres at the Carthage Film Festival in competition at the end of hte month where it will be up against future Oscar nomination challengers from Somalia (The Gravedigger's Wife) and Morocco (Casablanca Beats) as well as Lesotho's Oscar submission from last season  (This is Not a Burial But a Resurrection). Tunisia received its first nomination at the Oscars this past year with its seventh submission attempt, The Man Who Sold His Skin. 

You can see the submission charts (freshly updated) and predictions at TFE and follow along on Letterboxd here if you'd like.

Comments

[Owl]

Thanks for the coverage of international films -- my favorite film reportage in this site. I am excited to see Titane even if I might cringe and/or look away at most of the images. I like films that make me uncomfortable be it viscerally or even from a discursive level. These films make me remember them much more than 'crowd-pleasers' (subjectively defined of course).

Last year my choices were Dear Comrades and Nova Lituania but neither got much attention, especially the latter -- a very region-specific film that tackles a much bigger-in-scale topic of national relocation and imagined landscapes. That shows you how much out of touch I am to what the actual voters vote as the best among the subtitled films.

Excited for the entries from Morocco, Peru and Hungary.

[Dan H]

The TITANE choice, over HAPPENING, may be a risk (a quality pro-choice movie seems practically designed in a lab to win the International Oscar and crazy rarely wins in this category, or any other), but maybe those times really are a changin'. And let's not forget, DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE won in this category way back in the 70s, although that probably seems like MR. ROGERS compared to TITANE....

[Charlie G]

I loved Titane so much. But I fear it will be misunderstood and, therefore, overlooked. Good on choosing it though!