Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 7:45PM by Nathaniel R
8 VIEWS OF LAKE BIWA - Estonia's submission
Four more official submissions have been announced for the Best International Feature race at the impending 97th Oscars. They are...
Monday, August 21, 2023 at 3:00PM by Nathaniel R
After that first round of news, we have more info on the International Oscar race to share. First, we have three more official submissions for the upcoming race: Estonia will submit the documentary Smoke, Sauna, Sisterhood; South Korea has gone very mainstream choosing the earthquake drama Concrete Utopia (that probably means no nomination given that the Academy generally only pays attention to South Korea when they lean auteur... and even then they don't pay much attention despite South Korea having a very healthy and respected film industry); Finally, Uruguay will submit the comedy Family Album about a father and his teenage son forming a band.
Even if those three films don't sound right up Oscar's alley, you really never know, do you? It all depends on how the volunteer voters who screen enough of the films to vote respond to their selections. We also now know two more unofficial finalist lists from Germany and Netherlands, both of which have won the category multiple times...
Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 11:22PM by Nathaniel R
Writer/Director Peeter Rebane (left) and his narrative feature debut "Firebird"
Sometimes timelessness is a curse. We don't neccessarily want period pieces about forbidden oppressed gay romances to feel especially resonate in the now. Neverthless that's what's happened with Firebird. Peeter Rebane's narrative debut, which recently opened in select cities, tells the true story of a gay soldier and his clandestine romance with a fighter pilot in a Russian airforce base in Estonia during the Cold War. The film has been in the works for ten years but in the interim Russian culture has become more virulently anti-gay (stoked by homophobic 'strong-man' Putin) and aggressive about it; please see the tremendous documentary Welcome to Chechnya if you haven't. At the moment Russia is also waging war on Ukraine which adds yet more unexpected charge to the film since one of the two leads playing Russian military men, Oleg Zagorodnii, is Ukrainian.
When I sat down with the director Peeter Rebane, we talked about all this, as well as co-writing with his openly gay leading actor (Tom Prior), directing sex scenes, and homophobia in former Soviet countries...
Estonia, LGBTQ+, Oleg Zagorodnil, Peeter Rebane, Russia, Tom Prior, Ukraine, interview, sex scenes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 4:00PM by Nathaniel R
New gay film to tell you about. Roadside Attractions will be releasing the Cold War romantic drama Firebirds, on April 29th in theaters. Inspired by a true story, it involves the forbidden gay romance of a soldier and a pilot fighter in Estonia during the 1970s. British actor Tom Prior (Kingsman: Secret Service, The Theory of Everything) plays the Russian soldier and Ukrainian actor Oleg Zagorodnii plays the pilot fighter. Though the cast is international and it's shot in English the director, Peeter Rebane, making his narrative feature debut, is from Estonia...
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 10:08AM Since I last piped up on the Best International Feature Film race at the upcoming Oscars, Italy released their finalist lists, and the following five countries have also picked their ponies:
BRAZIL
They're sending Aly Muritiba's Private Desert about a suspended policeman who is looking to meet his internet love. She's vanished but he finds a man who offers to connect the would-be lovers. It premiered at Venice...
