"The Mauritanian" for the Oscar Race?

by Eric Blume

Yesterday, Variety leaked word that STX will provide a late-entry film into the Oscar race.  The Mauritanian, which was formerly titled Prisoner 760 (going from one bad title to another), is The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald's latest film.  It stars A Prophet's leading man Tahir Rahim as a tortured captive in Guatanamo Bay and Jodie Foster as his lawyer. Variety critic Clayton Davis claims that Rahim and Foster deliver electrifying performances, and that they could find themselves in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress races, respectively.

Macdonald has had a bit of an erratic career since he directed Forest Whittaker to an Oscar back in 2006.  His last film, the documentary Whitney, profiled the singer with limited depth but curiosity and sympathy.  It'll be good to see him return to the arena of global politics, which seems to be his strength...

Click to read more ...

HollyShorts 3. The 2020 Oscar-Qualifying Winners

by Nathaniel R

This is the first year The Film Experience has covered the HollyShorts Film Festival. We intended to do more but you know how it is with time. It flies! For the final piece, I thought I'd review a few of the winners. The Complete Winners List from the festival is presented in alphabetical order with capsule reviews of three Oscar qualifiers and a few more for good measure...

Click to read more ...

International Contenders: Sudan's First Submission, North Macedonia's Follow Up

We now have a total of 53 submissions for Oscar's Best International Feature competition with 7 additional countries like Bangladesh, Belarus, Colombia, Denmark, France, Italy, and Uruguay scheduled to announce their submissions within the next week. This year we might see a record number of African films submitted. For instance, we're getting our first submission from Sudan, You Will Die at 20, about a 19 year old who a village holy man had predicted at birth would die at 20. North Macedonia, which was nominated last year for Honeyland, has submitted a drama about three women struggling to control their own fates around pregnancy and motherhood called Willow.

Here are the new submissions since our last overview roundup!

• Israel - Asia (Israel's Oscar stats)
• Lithuania - Nova Lithuania
• Mexico - I'm No Longer Here (other finalists / Ariel Award Winner)
• Montenegro - Breasts
• North Macedonia - Willow 
• Norway - Hope (Norway's Oscar stats)
• Portugal - Listen (other finalists)
• Russia - Dear Comrades! (Russia's Oscar stats)
• South Africa - Toorbos 
• Sudan - You Will Die at 20 

WHERE TO SEE THE MOVIES?
If you want to get a jump on some of the submissions 8 of the 52 titles are currently streaming.  Netflix has five of them: Austria's What We Wanted, Mexico's I'm No Longer Here, Spain's The Endless Trench, Taiwan's A Sun, and Turkey's Miracle in Cell No 7. You can also stream Guatemala's La Llorona on Amazon,  Indonesia's Impetigore is on Shudder or Roku, and South Korea's Man Standing Next on Amazon, YouTube, or iTunes. You can follow the list as it grows at our Oscar charts or on our Letterboxd list. 

Podcast: Hillbilly Elegy, The Life Ahead, and Gotham nominations

with Nathaniel R & Murtada Elfadl

We're back !

Index (60 minutes)
00:01 Gotham Award Nominations. There is lots to discuss including First Cow, The Assistant, Nicole Beharie, Riz Ahmed, and longshots in Oscar races
28:00 Sophia Loren's star vehicle The Life Ahead
35:10 Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy. Amy Adams stars. We still think Glenn Close as "Mamaw" has a good shot at a nomination despite the rough reviews
54:30 Randomness to wrap up + Nathaniel finally saw Mulan 

Related Reading:
• Complete Gotham nominations
• Murtada's review of Miss Juneteenth
• Jason's review of First Cow
• Time interview
• Claudio's review of The Life Ahead

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Hillbilly, Gothams, Life Ahead

"Dear Comrades!" and Russia at the Oscars

by Nathaniel R

Russia has announced that Andrey Konchalovskiy's Dear Comrades!, a Grand Jury Prize winner in Venice, will be their selection for the Oscars. This is the third time Russia has selected Konchalovsky to submit them. The 83 year old director is deeply tied to Russian cinematic history. He's the elder brother of Russia's most Oscar-loved director Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) and he began his career writing and working for the legendary Andrei Tarkovsky (on Ivan's Childhood and Andre Rublev) in the early 1960s before launching his own directorial career.  He even tried his hand at English language films in the 1980s making Duet for One with Julie Andrews and the underappreciated Shy People with Barbara Hershey. His first Russian submission House of Fools in 2002 was unsuccessul. His second submission, the hugely lauded Paradise  in 2016, got close to the nomination, securing a finalist spot for itself. Will the third time be the charm? The official synopsis goes like so...

When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist.

Hot on the heels of that news NEON has announced that they're grabbed US distribution though no release date has been announced. Let's look at Russia's history with Oscar after the jump...

Click to read more ...