Seven new Oscar submissions, French finalists, and a potential Israel/Palestine conflict
Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 5:21PM by Nathaniel R
LET IT BE MORNING
The announcements of Oscar submissions from various countries are rolling in fast now. If you've missed previous posts we've already covered the submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland, Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Germany, and Spain and have reviewed three of the films. In today's huge update we have finalists lists from Chile, France, and Sweden as well as official submissions from Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, and Taiwan. But let's start with Israel as we foresee complications.
ISRAEL
Each year Israel's own Oscar style prize "The Ophir" is held around this time and whichever film wins becomes the automatic submission. They've only run into trouble with this system twice in the past (once for a film that had too much English and the other time with a tie so they had to vote again for Oscar purposes). But this year might be another. Let It Be Morning, with a largely Palestinian cast from source material by a Palestinian author, was the big winner at the Ophirs so it became the Israeli submission. While the director Erin Kolirin (of The Band's Visit fame) is Israeli, the film is about Palestinians and earlier this summer, the cast refused to attend the Cannes premiere because the festival labelled the film as an Israeli film. One imagines they'll object to this film representing Israel at the Oscars, for the same reason. Potentially complicating matters further is that Palestine also submits to the Oscars...
Initially in the early Aughts, the Academy rejected Palestine's desire to submit on the grounds that they weren't internationally recognized as a country. AMPAS soon caved since they had already made exceptions for other disputed areas like Taiwan and Hong Kong (both of which China objects to as being considered "countries" on their own). The Palestinian Ministry of Culture decides the Palestine submission each year and they've been nominated twice, Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013). If they ALSO decide to submit Let it Be Morning, the Academy will have to get involved -- at least insofar as making a ruling -- and the Academy surely doesn't want to get involved! Erin Kolirin was submitted once previously for the very buzzy at the time The Band's Visit (2007) but the Academy disqualified the film, on the grounds that there was too much English spoken in it.
On to the other newly announced submissions, there are six more...
GREECE
Greece will send Georgis Grigorakis' Digger an estranged father/son drama which takes place in a mining town. It was a big winner at the Hellenic Film Awards at home. Greek films were popular at the Oscars for a brief time in the 1960s but the only recent nominee was the inimitable Dogtooth.
HUNGARY
Each year it seems that one brave country submits a horror film even though Oscar has only nominated a couple in the entire 63 years of this category (depending on how you define "horror" of course but we think Japan's Kwaidan and Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth qualify). This year that risk falls to Hungary. They're sending Péter Bergendy's Post Mortem which is about a war photographer and a little girl in a haunted village after the first World War.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands will send Shariff Korver's thriller Do Not Hesitate about three young soldiers asked to guard a military vehicle. Korver was born in Venezuela but studied filmmaking in The Netherlands. The film stars Joes Brauers (Quo Vadis Aida?, The East), Spencer Bogaert (Alpha), and Dutch TV regular Tobias Kersloot It was one of 14 films being considered.
SOMALIA
Somalia will submit to the Oscars for the very first time! They've chosen Khadar Ahmed's The Gravedigger's Wife, about a happily married but financially struggling couple in Djibouti City which played at both Cannes and TIFF after a two year release delay due to COVID-19.
SOUTH KOREA
South Korea, which received its first nomination and win for Parasite (2019), will send the action thriller Escape from Mogadishu in which North and South Korean diplomats try to escape Somalia as a civil war breaks out. The film is from director Ryoo Seung-wan and was already released stateside this summer by Well Go Entertainment.
TAIWAN
Taiwan will submit the mother/daughter pandemic drama The Falls, which is currently up for 11 Golden Horse Awards. I didn't care for it at Venice but some people really love it. This is Chung Mong-hong's third submission and second consecutive submission after Soul (2013) and A Sun (2020); the latter made the finals but wasn't nominated in the end.
Meanwhile in terms of the finalists lists we've got a couple more...
CHILE
Chile is deciding between 12 titles: The mystery Date una Vuelta en el Aire by Cristián Sánchez, the horror drama Fever Dream by Claudia Llosa, the lesbian drama Forgotten Roads by Nicol Ruiz Benavides, the trans documentary The Journey of Monalisa by Nicole Costa, Mal Vecino by Ricardo Jara Herrera, the troubled sibling drama My Brothers Dream Awake by Claudia Huaiquimilla, the mystery La Promesa del Retorno by Cristián Sánchez, a documentary on Sergio Larrain called The Eternal Moment by Sebastián Moreno, Superno by Abel Mekasha, Three Souls by José Guerrero Urzúa, the murder mystery La Verónica by Leonardo Medel and a drama about a wedding photographer called White on White by Théo Court. Aside from Claudio Llosa who is Peruvian and has been submitted by Peru twice (receiving Peru's only nomination for Milk of Sorrow), none of these filmmakers have been Oscar submitted before in this category. Both of Chile's most internationally famous directors, Sebastian Lelio (The Wonder 2022) and Pablo Larrain (Spencer) are on English language projects at the moment.
SWEDEN
The following three films are under consideration: Clara Sola, a Spanish language sexual awakening drama by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, a remake of the classic Oscar-nominated The Emigrants from Erik Poppe (who is Norwegian and has been submitted by his home country twice before, making the finals with The King's Choice) and the sports drama Tigers by Ronnie Sandahl.
FRANCE
France is of course the biggie when it comes to Oscar's Best International Feature Film category. They've been nominated more times than any other country and trail only Italy in terms of wins. They are choosing between three titles, two of which won one of the big five festivals. It will either be the Palme d'Or winner Titane by Julia Ducournau (currently in release in the US and reviewed here), the Golden Lion winner abortion drama Happening by writer/director Audrey Diwan (reviewed here), or the police drama BAC Nord by Cédric Jimenez (which is also, incidentally, co-written by Happening's Audrey Diwan). Given that France very recently sent a police/crime drama (Les Miserables) we doubt they'll choose that one. As a huge fan of Happening I'm rooting for it since it's excellent and timely but admittedly I have yet to see the wild conversation-starter Titane (I freely admit to being very hesitant to see ultra-gorey movies). France will choose their submission in about a week's time after meeting with all three filmmakers.
You can see the submission charts (currently being updated) and predictions at TFE and follow along on Letterboxd here if you'd like.
Reader Comments (8)
I didn't love Titane (and am not even sure I liked it all that much), but as someone who reads the Wikipedia synopses of horror films just to get a sense of how gory and scary they can get, it wasn't as gory as I feared. I would be floored if France submitted it ahead of Happening, given the acclaim for both and the timeliness of the latter.
I'd be betting on Chile going with My Brothers Dream Awake (Mis hermanos sueñan despiertos), which is the buzziest film of the list, premiering recently in Locarno and made by a promising director who already made one of the best Chilean films of recent years, Mala Junta - seek it out if you can!
I really thought they're going to send (and win) with Sciamma this year. Sorrentino must be smiling and sipping an espresso somewhere.
I loved Petite Maman (probably my favourite film of 2020/2021 thus far), but I don't think it would make a great submission.
Horror is my least favorite genre probably because I have an overactive imagination and my siblings let me watch scary movies when I was WAY too young and thus got nightmares.
In spite of this, a couple of years ago I watched Thailand's Oscar entry: Inhuman Kiss. It was a horror movie based on Thai folklore. It was legitimately better than some of the films nominated for Oscars that year. I'm glad some countries choose horror films. Not everything needs to be a WWII movie or biopic. So go Hungary!
I agree with Arkaan. You definitely can handle Titane. I don't like gore either, and I didn't think it was all that gory (certainly not as gory as, say, Hereditary or Midsommar). And I thought the film was brilliant.
I am seeing Petite Maman this week... I am so looking forward to it.
Thank you for your coverage of the Internation Film race !
A quick fix : Audrey Diwan is not a debut director. She directed her first feature film a few years ago ("Mais vous êtes fous").
Charlie -- thanks. fixed.
Jules & Arkaan - thanks for the assurances. If it's less gory than those I guess i can do it though I don't like gore at all.
Cash -- i liked Inhuman Kiss too. it was silly but in a good folkore way