Belgium's "Close", Venezuela's "The Box" and Israel's "Cinema Sabaya" join the Oscar race

With 43 entries thus far, we're just a few titles short of the halfway mark on submissions for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Oscars. There's usually a little over 90 films. You can see the full submission charts here but if that's too much all at once for you, here are the most recent three countries to announce....

🇦🇲 CLOSE (Lukas Dhont)
BELGIUM (7 nominations and 2 additional finalists from 47 submissions)

From the director of the controversial trans drama Girl, which was Belgium's submission in 2018, comes this drama about an intense friendship between two teenage boys that suddenly goes sour. It shared the Grand Prize at Cannes. A24 will distribute in the US though they haven't announced a date yet. Reviewed at Cannes by Elisa who calls it "spare but powerful".

🇦🇲 CINEMA SABAYA (Orit Fouks Rotem)
ISRAEL (10 nominations and 1 additional finalist from 55 submissions)

Israel is the most nominated among countries that have yet to win this Oscar. We recently had a guest contributor talk to us about who should win the Ophir Awards -- you can read his take on their films here -- and Johnathan will be delighted that his favourite Cinema Sabaya defied expectations, defeating the more high profile contenders Karaoke (which took both lead acting prizes) and Valeria is Getting Married (which took screenplay). This one is a small story of a video workshop that Arabs and Jewish municipal workers attend together. It won five awards in total.

🇦🇲 THE BOX (Lorenzo Vigas)
VENEZUELA (1 finalist from 31 submissions)

Venezuela sent Vigas excellent debut From Afar in 2016. The Academy didn't bite for much the same reasons they probably won't bite here; it was emotionally brutal but not grand about it. The Box begins with a young boy sent to retrieve his father's ashes but he doesn't get on the bus back as expected. Still, this category has often had a soft spot for intimate stories about an interesting dynamic between a young person and an old person and this film has that! Coincidentally, The Box is also on Mexico's shortlist of five finalists for their submission this year so now that list will be down to four. Reviewed at Venice by Nathaniel last year though apparently it didn't open in Venezuela until 2022.

Previous Submission Posts

• Armenia, Bolivia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovakia
• Austria, Finland, Croatia, Netherlands, Indonesia, Guatemala, Paraguay
• Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Turkey, Uganda
• Albania, Hungary, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ukraine
• Algeria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Greece 
• Canada, Germany
• Ecuador, Poland 
• Uruguay
• Taiwan
• South Korea, Ireland, Switzerland

they've narrowed it down
• France's finalists
• Denmark's finalists
• Israel's finalists
• Sweden's finalists 
• Spain's finalists - they chose Alcarras
• Mexico's finalists 

Current Predictions

Comments

[Travis C]

So many films from the past year called THE BOX - I got excited, then disappointed, when I found out the Korean one and the US one were available on streaming.

[Clea María]

There was some controversy around Venezuela's pick: There's a history of other countries submitting films set in a foreign country with a foreign cast and crew (France selecting Mustang, or Mexico going with Pan's Labyrinth) but this is the first time for Venezuela, so local filmmakers are not happy that the committee selected a film set in Mexico, telling a story about Mexico, with a Mexican cast (and other than the director, co-writer and associated producer) crew that has absolutely no relation to the country.

[bouass daouda]

Thanks for sharing this nice blog. And thanks for the information. Will like to read more from this blog.

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