by Nathaniel R
Norway has narrowed down its Oscar submission choice to three finalists. As expected one of them is the Cannes Camera D'Or winner Armand a contemporary drama that stars Reinata Rensve who is understandably a hot international casting commodity after her breakthrough with The Worst Person in the World. The film is the directorial debut of the grandson of Scandinavian screen legend Liv Ullmann. The Norwegian selection committee is also looking at the World War II era drama Quisling The Final Days (reviewed here at TIFF) by Erik Poppe. Poppe has been submitted twice before with Hawaii Oslo in 2004 and The King's Choice in 2016, the latter of which made the finals. The final submission option is the contemporary drama Sex by Dag Johan Haugerud about two ostensibly straight men who become confused about their desires. Interestingly it's part of a trilogy of films and the final film, Kjaerlighet (Love) just debut at Venice to rave reviews. Norway will announce their choice on September 19th. While Oscar loves World War II dramas, they aren't the sure thing they once were in this category so maybe the heat on Armand at Cannes will still burn bright enough?
In the past week the official Best International Feature Film competition has more than doubled in size. 19 additional countries have announced their representative title. In other words, with 41 titles announced we're almost halfway to knowing the full list. The three submission charts and finalist prediction chart have all been updated -- yes the general Osar charts will soon follow. The complete list (thus far) and a note about where/when you can see the films if you live in the US, follows after the jump. For brevity's sake we've highlighted one new title from each chart to focus on here on the main page...
Newly added titles are in bold.
Chart 1 (A-G) for more info - 13 titles
- Armenia, Yasha and Leonid Breshnev
- Austria, The Devil's Bath -NOW STREAMING IN US
- BELGIUM -Julie Keeps Quiet
- Brazil - finalist list coming on September 16
- Bulgaria, Triumph
- Cambodia, Meeting with Pol Pot
- Canada, Universal Language - COMING TO US THEATERS IN FEBRUARY
- Chile, In Her Place - STREAMING IN OCTOBER
- COSTA RICA - Memories of a Burning Body
- Croatia, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day
- Denmark - finalist list of 3 titles
- CZECH REPUBLIC - Waves
- ECUADOR - Behind the Mist
- Estonia, 8 Views of Lake Biwa
- France - finalist list of 4 titles
- GEORGIA - The Antique
CHART 2 (G-N) for more info - 14 titles
- Germany, The Seed of the Sacred Fig -COMING TO US THEATERS IN NOVEMBER
- GREECE - Murderess
- Guatemala - finalist list of 2 titles
- HUNGARY - Semmelweis
- Iraq, Baghdad Messi
- Ireland, Kneecap -NOW SHOWING IN US
- Italy - deciding between 19 films
- Japan, Cloud - REVIEW
- ICELAND - Touch - STREAMING ON PEACOCK
- Israel - finalist list of 6 titles
- KENYA - Nawi
- Kyrgyzstan, Heaven is Beneath Mother's Feet
- Latvia, Flow -COMING TO US THEATERS IN NOVEMBER
- Lithuania, Drowning Dry
- Morocco - Everybody Loves Touda
- NEPAL - Shambhala
- NETHERLANDS - Memory Lane
CHART 3 (P-Y) for more info - 14 titles
- Palestine, From Ground Zero
- PANAMA -Wake Up, Mom
- PERU - Yana-Wara
- PORTUGAL - Grand Tour
- Romania, Three Kilometres to the End of the World REVIEW
- SENEGAL - Dahomey
- SERBIA - Russian Consul
- SLOVAKIA -The Hungarian Dressmaker
- SLOVENIA Family Therapy
- Spain, finalist list of 3 titles
- South Korea, 12:12 The Day -RENTABLE ON APPLE OR STREAMING ON VIKI
- Sweden, finalist list of 3 titles
- Switzerland, finalist list of 2 titles
- Taiwan, Old Fox - CURRENTLY STREAMING
- Turkey, Life
- UKRAINE - La Palisiada
- Uruguay, The Door is There
Are you getting excited about the Oscars yet or are they still too far away to contemplate?