"World War III" and other new titles join the Oscar race
Monday, September 19, 2022 at 7:46PM Bosnia, Iran, Nepal, Portugal, and Romania have announced their submissions to the 95th Oscars. Here's a little info about those choices...
🇮🇷 WORLD WAR III (Houman Seyyedi)
IRAN (3 nominations, 2 wins, and 2 additional finalists from 28 submissions)
This drama about a day labourer working in a construction site who ends up participating in a film about Hitler and World War II won the Orrizonti section at Venice. It might be one to watch out for with Oscar. Mohsen Tanabandeh (A Hero, Rona Azim's Mother) stars...
🇧🇦 A BALLAD (Aida Begic)
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA (2 nominations, 1 win, and 1 additional finalist from 22 submissions)
A contemporary set feminist film, described as "restless" and "experimental" in reviews that's inspired by a famous (in Bosnia) 17th-century ballad. This is Begic's fourth full length feature and fourth Oscar submission -- that's right they've all been chosen -- after Snow (2008), Children of Sarajevo (2012), and Never Leave Me (2018). Oscar has yet to choose her though.
🇳🇵 BUTTERFLY ON A WINDOW PANE (Sujit Bidari)
NEPAL (1 nomination from 12 submissions)
According to IMDb this first debuted back in 2020 but given the pandemic and the size of Nepalese cinema, perhaps it's only freshly available there? This one is about a teenage sister and her little brother in a rural community
🇵🇹 ALMA VIVA (Cristèle Alves Meira)
PORTUGAL (no results yet from 39 submissions)
This is the second consecutive Portuguese submission from a female director. It's a narrative feature debut for this director and concerns a young girl whose grandmother suddenly dies. Portugal holds the unfortunate statistical distinction of being the most frequently submitting country to have never been nominated.
🇷🇴 IMMACULATE (Monica Stan and George Chiper)
ROMANIA (1 nomination and 1 additional finalist from 38 submissions)
In something of a surprise given the profile of RMN (which debuted at Cannes) they've gone with Immaculate, a rehab drama. The film was well received at New Directors/New Films and at Venice.
With 47 entries thus far, the longlist for Best International Feature Film is (if past years are indication) halfway complete. You can see the full submission charts here but if that's too much all at once for you, here are random articles on various countries...
Previous Submission Posts
• Venezuela, Belgium, Israel
• 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
Reader Comments (2)
Last year we saw a bounty of great international film (Drive My Car, Titane, The Worst Person in the World, Flee, Parallel Mothers, The Left Hand of God, and Petite Maman). This year seems lackluster. I feel like I am waiting to see the German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front next month and then applaud as it wins the Oscar.
India selected Last Film Show and not RRR. If the Academy truly wants to attract populous audiences, they should give some noms to RRR, like Screenplay and Song.