9 Foreign Film Finalists for the Oscar Race

by Nathaniel R

"The Wound" from South Africa might be the biggest surprise on the finalist list.The Academy's foreign film nominating committees have whittled down the 92 contenders to 9. If you've forgotten or never heard the procedure it involves multiple volunteers watching a certain number of entries to be eliglble to vote on them. The top six films advance from those ballots and the executive committee chooses another three which makes the 9 finalists. Then a final committee watches the nine finalists and votes to determine the five nominations. We correctly predicted 7 of the 9 finalist (you can peak here though we'll be updating that chart to reflect the official standings shortly)

A Fantastic Woman directed by Sebastián Lelio for Chile
In the Fade directed by Fatih Akin for Germany
On Body and Soul Ildikó Enyedi for Hungary
Foxtrot directed by Samuel Maoz for Israel
The Insult directed by Ziad Doueiri for Lebanon
Loveless directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev for Russia
Félicité directed by Alain Gomis for Senegal
The Wound directed by John Trengove for South Africa
The Square directed by Ruben Östlund for Sweden MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

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European Film Awards - Much Love to "The Square"

by Nathaniel R

The annual European Film Awards have logged many frequent flyer miles over the years as they hop around to various host countries. Today they were held in Berlin Germany and multiple Oscar hopefuls in Best Foreign Language Film took home prizes. The Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square won the most statues and Hungary's Alexandra Borbely who stars in the weirdly compelling On Body and Soul (reviewed here) took Best Actress. You can see all the winners after the jump...

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Interview: Claes Bang on 'The Square,' the Monarchy and Being Starstruck at the Governors Awards

By Jose Solís.

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Like Christian, his character in The Square, Claes Bang speaks with impressive assertiveness. Even when he’s poking fun at himself, he sounds like a man who’s never had any doubts or gotten himself into something he couldn’t get out of. Perhaps it’s this quality that makes his performance in Ruben Östlund’s award winning film so magnetic, and has also raised comparisons to Jon Hamm and James Bond. At age 50, the Danish actor who has mostly worked on stage and television, finds himself in the unlikely position of movie star. Position which he’s filled extraordinarily, having become the sensation of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as a dark horse for the European Film Awards where he’s competing against Colin Farrell and Jean-Louis Trintignant for Best Actor.

Watching Bang (even his name’s cool!) in The Square one gets the sense of both knowing Christian, but also feeling like he could deceive you at any moment. He’s the kind of man who seems so secure of his position in the world, that he could drag you with him without you realizing it. When I spoke to director Östlund he explained that he saw Christian as a man who, despite appearances, isn’t as free as we’d think. Earlier this fall, Bang took a break from his publicity tour to do a play in Denmark, and he also makes New Wave-like electronica - think darker Depeche Mode - under the moniker This Is Not America, making him the ultimate renaissance man. If awards season wasn’t so partial to English speaking roles, Bang would be a serious contender for Best Actor, since he delivers the kind of performance that combines unique thespian talents, with pure star power. I spoke to him about taking on a character as complex as Christian, his thoughts on the monarchy, and his favorite part of awards season so far. Read the interview after the jump...

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Oscar Contenders Sweep Through the 11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards

By Glenn Dunks

Rajkummar Rao wins BEST ACTOR for India's Oscar submission "Newton"

This past Thursday, the 11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards were held in Brisbane, Australia. The awards cover 70 countries and areas, which makes their scope even bigger than APSA's cousin the European Film Awards. Now, fair admission, working for APSA is my day job for four months of the year, but when I say what they do is so incredible and important you should know I'm not saying so out of obligation. How many award shows do you know that can honour an Australian 1920s-set western, a contemporary Georgian drama for actressexuals, and Syrian documentaries about life-saving humanitarians?

More than half of the 13 categories this year were won by films on various Oscar eligibility longlists and therefore in serious contention of nominations. While the big winner of the night for Best Feature Film was ultimately Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country of Australia, it won't be released locally until January next year so it could potentially be eligible for 2018 (his 2009 debut, which also won the Best Feature Film APSA made the foreign language shortlist). But the big country winners of the night were Georgia and Russia with three wins.

The winners are after the jump...

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Interview: Director Petra Volpe on Swiss Oscar Submission 'The Divine Order'

By Jose Solís

I don’t remember exactly what horrible thing the new US administration had announced it wanted to do the day I found myself walking into The Divine Order at the Tribeca Film Festival. I knew nothing about the movie and decided I’d give it ten minutes to capture my attention and help me escape whatever ghastly reality was shaping outside. I didn’t want to watch anything about war, genocide etcetera.

All I wanted was hope, and boy did Petra Volpe’s lovely film deliver...

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