Norway's Oscar Submission Finalists

by Nathaniel R

Since we last discussed the Best International Feature Film four more official submissions have been announced from Egypt, Nepal, Slovakia, and Ukraine which you can read about on those charts (click on the country names) with several more to follow since oft-nominated countries like Spain, Italy, France, and Sweden are all announcing in the next few days. Tonight though, one of my favourite topics: Norway! As longtime readers know I once lived there and was once fluent in Norwegian. Those days are long long gone but I still like to watch Norwegian movies and television and try to turn off the subtitles on occassion.

Norway has announced three finalists for their submission: Let the River Flow, A Happy Day, and Songs of Earth...

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Norway's Amanda Awards: "Worst Person in the World" and more...

by Nathaniel R

Trier and Vogt with their Amanda Award for "Worst Person in the World" © Grethe Nygaard˙

I once briefly lived in the breathtakingly beautiful town of Haugesund, Norway and made one of my best friends for life there (hei Thomas!). He now lives there again after many years in Los Angeles and if I had any money at all I would be there right now to attend the annual Norwegian Film Festival which takes place there each year. This year's festival runs from today, August 20th, through the 26th. One of the most interesting things about this festival is that it basically kicks off with Norway's annual Oscar-like ceremony, The Amanda Awards...

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'Worst Person...' and the 10 most successful Norwegian films in the US

by Nathaniel R

Talking about weekend box office isn't as much fun as it was pre-pandemic since it matters less and less with more films opting for streaming only. So let's get super niche instead. With the Oscar nominated The Worst Person in the World doing terrific business in the nation's arthouses -- I even heard strangers talking about it on the subway in NYC, always a great sign that an arthouse film has caught on -- let's talk about how Norwegian films fare at the Oscars and with US moviegoers...

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The One Inch Barrier: 'Nights of Cabiria' and 'The Seventh Seal'

by Nathaniel R

While we're sad about the current state of Oscar we still have 93 other years of Oscar history to obsess over. So I'm happy to share that I was invited back for a final appearance on "The One-Inch Barrier". Juan Carlos Ojano's podcast has looked at every Oscar race for Best International Feature Film while moving backward in time. Well almost every. There's still a few episodes to go. For this episode Juan Carlos and I talked about the nominated films of 1957 including The Gates of Paris (France), the noir The Devil Strikes at Night (Germany), the musical melodrama Mother India (India), the WW II survival drama Nine Lives (Norway), and the winning film Federico Fellini's enchanting Nights of Cabiria (Italy).

Ingmar Bergman's influential early classic The Seventh Seal was also submitted for the Oscars that year but the Academy unwisely passed. I have words about that. Hope you enjoy...

AFI Diary #1: "The Worst Person in the World," and More

Christopher is covering the 2021 AFI Fest Film Festival. Follow along for his reviews.

The 2021 AFI Fest Film Festival began Wednesday, November 10th with the World Premiere of Netflix’s Tick, Tick... Boom! (which got raves from Nathaniel). My festival began on Thursday with three films: one documentary feature, one international Oscar contender and a romantic anthology that had a splashy Cannes debut. It already feels great to be back in-person at a film festival. AFI is doing a hybrid of in person and virtual screenings this year, offering a nice variety for festivalgoers.

Without further ado, the reviews:

The Worst Person In The World (Joachim Trier) - Norway's Official International Feature Film Oscar® Submission...

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