Foreign Film Oscar: South Korea's "Front Line"

Oscar's foreign film submission announcements will be flying at us for the next month and you can keep track of the whole list at my foreign oscar predictions pages. A short time ago I told you that South Korea had narrowed down their Oscar submissions. That news was shortlived as the competition is over and they've gone with the battlefield drama The Front Line. [Thanks to faithful TFE reader Jin for the info.]

Here's the warry trailer.

Excuse me but I barely see any actressing! I mean other than Kim Ok-bin. Shouldn't there be a rule against films light on actressing in South Korean cinema? They have so many good ones and their one representative film for AMPAS is practically bereft of them? sigh.

To make up for their sudden xy departure, here's a recent photoshoot starring Kim Ok-bin, who you'll recall was a Film Bitch nominee right here in 2009 for Thirst.

I feel much better already...

Three other selections were announced last week...

ROMANIA
Romania, like South Korea, doesn't have any Oscar nominations to show for years of cinephile enthusiasm. The Academy generally can take some time to catch up so if a country wants to get Oscar play their international cinema heat can't be shortlived. Their entry this year is Marian Crisan debut feature Morgen, a hit at the Locarno festival, which is about an unlikely friendship between a security guard and an illegal Kurdish immigrant.

MOROCCO 
Actor Roschdy Zem's second feature as a director Omar Killed Me stars Sami Bouajila, who international arthouse audiences might remember best from the gay comedy The Adventures of Félix or from major roles in two different Algerian Oscar nominees Days of Glory and Outside the Law (both of which happened to co-star Zem). Bouajila pops up in English language films once in awhile too (The Siege, London River). The previous Oscar heat doesn't stop there: Director Rachid Bouchareb, who directed both of the recent Algerian nominees starring these two, helped with the screenplay adaptation of this biopic about an innocent prisoner. The Hollywood Reporter calls it "intense and superbly acted."

VENEZUELA
Alejandro Bellame Palacios’s The Rumble of the Stones is about a mother attempting to rebuild her family's lives after a natural disaster. There are many hardships along the way but apparently it's an optimistic picture; one fan on Facebook called it a "true tribute to the nobility of Venezuelan women."

Not yet announced but getting there...

MEXICO
It's not official yet but you shouldn't be surprised if Mexico goes with festival sensation Miss Bala for their Oscar film which we've mentioned a few times. Awards Daily likes the trailer but I'm not watching it since I'm seeing the film in a couple of weeks and want to be surprised. I'm pretty wild for the poster. It's provocative ... and I mean story-wise though I'm sure breasts never hurt in selling a movie. The movie is getting a U.S. release in the fall courtesy of Fox International.

Mexico currently has these 11 features under consideration. Thanks to Armando for sending in the list. The films are

• Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
• 180˚(Fernando Kalife)
• Dias de Gracia (Everardo Valerio Gout Grautoff)
• El Baile de San Juan (Francisco Athie) 
• Flores en el desierto (José Alvarez)
• La Mitad del Mundo (Jaime Ruiz Ibáñez)
• Bala Mordida (Diego Muñoz Vega)
• Siete Instantes (Diana Cardoso)
• Somos lo que Hay (Jorge Michael Grau)
• Una Pared Para Cecilia (Hugo Rodríguez)
• Viaje Redondo (Gerardo Tort)

If I'm not mistaken, none of these filmmakers have ever been put forward by Mexico before so with no "favorite son" precedent it could be anyone's ball game ...were it not for the obvious critical enthusiasm for Miss Bala that is. The other film that has something of an international profile is the disturbingly grotesque Somos lo Que Hay which opened in the US as We Are What We Are. For all its horror dread potency, I can't see Oscar touching that one.

Global Box Office: Monks, Assassins, Maids & Trophy Wives

To speak in gross generalities the last weekend in August is Hollywood's last chance to nab easy-to-please summertime dollars before the films get more "depressing" (read: statue-hungry) and people get back to careerism/schooling in September. But with Hurricane Irene shutting down NYC's unshutdownable mass transit and keeping people locked up in their homes (or other people's homes) this weekend all over the Northeast the box office will probably be way down. The Help will try to fend off three wide release newcomers seeking different audiences be that the horror crowd (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark),  the action-hungry (Colombiana), or comedy seekers (Our Idiot Brother reviewed). We probably won't be discussing box office tomorrow -- especially if we get a power outtage tonight! -- so let's talk about a related topic today.

Let's talk about movies that box office reports elsewhere never talk about: non-English language movies. Which are the highest grossers worldwide? The figures are drawn from various box office mojo charts as of Friday 08/26. I'm assuming that India doesn't release figures since Bollywood is a huge industry and you'd think they'd factor into the first chart more than they do if they did.

UPDATE: After compiling the list I discovered through the comments -- thanks Kin -- that the "Yearly Worldwide" chart that was my primary source of information contradicts the "Overseas Total Yearly Box Office" chart to quite an insanely large degree (what gives box office mojo?). Some titles are totally absent from either list though that makes no literal sense as "overseas" by any definition is part of "worldwide". NEW UPDATED LIST AND APOLOGIES AFTER THE JUMP.

Click to read more ...

Foreign Oscar Tracking: South Korea

Korean cinema has really been a hotspot this past decade, what with Kim Ki-Duk (Time, 3-Iron, Spring Summer...), Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother, Memories of Murder), Park Chan-wook (Thirst, Oldboy... the upcoming Stoker) and Lee Chang-dong (Poetry, Oasis, Peppermint Candy) winning over critics and Asian film fans quite regularly. South Korea's steady stream of great performances by actresses isn't hurting their rep either... especially not with The Film Experience ;) Just the other day I was skimming over The Housemaid again and, gah, actressy heaven. All four female players were totally working those roles.

The Front Line, Sunny, and Poonsang

So we're curious as to what they'll submit this year.  The Korean Film Commission has narrowed it down to six titles so one of these will be your Oscar contender:

• Poonsan (Juhn Jai-hong) is a romantic drama about a South Korean messenger and his pick-up from North Korea that he's to smuggle across the border. 
• The Yellow Sea (Na Hong-Jin) is about a gambling addict taxi driver who takes an assassination job to pay off his debts. Trouble follows, naturally.
• The Front Line (Jang Hoon) The director used to be an assistant director to the great Kim Ki-Duk. Apparently there is now friction between the two of them in regards to the goings on of the Korean film industry. This is a big budgeted war drama taking place in 1951. 
• Sunny (Kang Hyeong-cheol), is the year's biggest hit in Korea. And -- actress alert! -- it's about a group of girlfriends from school who reunite 25 years later to reminisce. 
• The Day He Arrives (Hong Sang-soo) is a black and white picture about a man wandering around Seoul, running into friends and ex girlfriends and the like. It played at Cannes.
• Hanji (or Scooping Up the Moonlight) (Im Kwon-taek) a government employee is assigned to revive the Hanji paper industry and he falls in love with it. Kwon-taek has been submitted once before with Chunhyang (2000)

It's tough to say what the Film Council will go for as there are a wide variety of factors in play from homefield success, through international auteur reps, to which films might appeal to AMPAS's sensibility. But the sad truth is that, whatever they choose, it's an uphill battle. Oscar has yet to nominate a Korean film... despite recent submissions as hugely acclaimed and well loved as Oasis (2002), Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003), Secret Sunshine (2007) and Mother (2009).

Have you caught up with recent Korean successes like Mother, Poetry (my review), The Host or The Housemaid? 

Oscar Pages for Foreign Film Submission Lists

NYFF Overflows with Fascinating Auteurs & Oscar Contenders

Gael Garcia Bernal gets licked at the New York Film FestivalSince I'm not doing Toronto this year (I hope to convince a few volunteers to do coverage for the site. If you're going and you're a reader/writer...) I plan to go full hog on the NYFF. I will also be enlisting at least one extra member of the Film Experience team to join me so that we have more for you. Below you'll find the final lineup culled from the official site but I've divvied it up for you into categories.  Please do let us know in the comments which films you're most interested in hearing about, or, if you're in NYC, which films you plan to see.

Buzzy Indies
Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which Elizabeth Olsen leaves a cult in time for her Oscar campaign, directed by Sean Durkin (USA)
A Separation, a tense family drama that keeps winning awards, directed by Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, in which sister Carey Mulligan visits her sex addict brother Michael Fassbender. From the director of Hunger so therefore MUST-SEE... even if constant Michael Fassbender sex scenes weren't enough (UK)

Will Their Countries Submit Them For Oscar's 'Best Foreign Language Film'?
The Kid With A Bike, directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, is about an abandoned 11 year old. It won prizes at Cannes because it's a rule that all Dardenne Brothers films do, don'cha know. (Belgium) 
Le Havre, directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland)

Miss Bala in danger

Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo, in which a beauty pageant contestant runs into trouble with a drug cartel. I'm curious about this one. (Mexico)
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan -- I've never really understood the cinephile adoration -- it's a crime drama about the search for a missing body(Turkey) 
The Student, directed by Santiago Mitre, a political thriller about a student who falls for a radical organizer (Argentina) 

Oscar Players... Maybe
The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, an homage to Old Hollywood (France)
Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski, an adaptation of the hit play (see previous posts) (France/Germany/Poland)
The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, in which George Clooney has multiple crises (USA)
My Week With Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis, about a week in Marilyn's life during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl (see previous posts) (UK)

Auteur Mania... (I don't make a habit of missing films by these men)
A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenberg, about Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Jung (Michael Fassbender) and their crazy subject (Keira Knightley), (UK/Canada/Germany)
 Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier, in which Kirsten Dunst's wedding plans are plagued by the impending apocalypse. (see previous posts) (Denmark)
The Skin I Live In, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, in which the director finally reunites with Antonio Banderas for a gruesome tale of revenge involving a plastic surgeon. (previous posts) (Spain)

Miscellania
4:44: Last Day On Earth, directed by Abel Ferrara, bills itself as an "apocalypse trance film". Starring Willem Dafoe. (USA)
Corpo Celeste, directed by Alice Rohrwacher, is about a young girl struggling with religion. (Italy)
George Harrison: Living In The Material World, music documentary directed by Martin Scorsese (USA)
Goodbye First Love, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, tracks a first love over eight years (France/Germany)
Pina, directed by Wim Wenders, which is a 3D dance film and tribute to Pina Bausch (Germany/France/UK)
Play, directed by Ruben Östlund, which is a provocative movie about African immigrants taking advantage of Swedish peacefulness (Sweden)
Policeman, directed by Nadav Lapid, which includes wealthy anarchists and anti-terrorist police (Israel/France)
Sleeping Sickness, directed by Ulrich Köhler who won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. It involved doctors combating an epidemic of, well, the title (Germany/France/Netherlands)
The Loneliest Planet, directed by Julia Loktev, is an English language drama about a couple falling apart. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Yay. (USA/Germany)
The Turin Horse, a meditation "on the interconnectedness of things", directed by Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky (Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA)
This Is Not A Film, directed by Jafar Panahi who is currently appealing his prison sentence in Iran, and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Iran)

Have at it in the comments!

Foreign Oscar Track: Israel and Norway

Two more countries, neither of which have ever won the Foreign Film Prize in Hollywood, have announced their finalists lists.

We'll take Norway first since it's less popular with Oscar (5 nominations) and because I stand humbly before you to say I was wrong. My conjecture about what might be submitted -- other than the new Joachim Trier -- was quite wobbly. The three finalists are not the biggies from the Amanda awards but Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st (Oslo, 31. august) which we briefly discussed, Anne Sewitsky’s Happy, Happy (Sykt lykkelig) and Jens Lien’s Sons of Norway (Sønner av Norge). While Trier has the highest international profile, that doesn't always equate with submission choice. Happy Happy is a very frisky marital comedy (I ♥ the trailer) and Sons of Norway is a punk rock coming of age film that even features a cameo from Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten. Neither of the trailers are subtitled and both feature nudity but if you want to see them they're here: Happy Happy and Sons of Norway.

Award winning filmmaker Joseph CedarIsrael, which has been nominated nine times (and thrice consecutively in recent years), just announced the nominees for their Oscars, the Ophir Awards.  This is always the list they pull from for their Best Foreign Language Film submission so it's probably going to be the 13 times nominated (whew) frontrunner Joseph Cedar's Footnote which played at Cannes winning the Screenplay award but garnering somewhat mixed reviews. It's about feuding father and son professors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Writer/director Joseph Cedar, who was actually born here in New York City, was previously nominated for the soldier drama Beaufort (2007). 

But if there's a dark horse submission it'll be one of these four: Yossi Madmoni's Restoration, Nadav Lapid's Policeman (Ha-Shoter) Marco Carmel's My Lovely Sister or Maya Kenig's Off White Lies... all of which are more difficult to find info on then the Norwegian films at this point.

Slowly Evolving Oscar Foreign Film Pages Are Here.