Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 8:00AM by Nathaniel R
THREE KILOMETRES TO THE END OF THE WORLD © Vlad Dumitrescu
It's that time of year when countries are regularly announcing their Oscar submission. We started the week with 15 contenders but now we're at 18 and we have three new finalist lists, as well...
Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 5:27PM by Nathaniel R
Though I know I've been absent from writing, I have been updating the International Feature Film Oscar charts to track the submissions. So far 15 countries have announced their submissions, some of which are available to US viewers. After the jump, the list so far, impending decisions from Israel and South Korea, and general observations...
Friday, August 30, 2024 at 3:00PM 
THE BURITI FLOWER is one of Portugal's five finalists.
As the Best International Film Oscar race starts to take shape, the Portuguese Academy has begun the process of choosing the country's official submission. This year's selection committee was composed of nine individuals, all of whom work in the Portuguese film industry. The group ranged from directors to a distributor, encompassing actors, producers, a writer, and even a cinematographer. They include Cristèle Alves Meira, the Listen director who won gold two years ago in Venice; Luís Gaivão Teles, whose documentation of the 1974 Revolution is a precious historical artifact; and DP José Tiago whose filmography contains the Meryl Streep-led The House of the Spirits and our first-ever Oscar submission, Manhã Submersa.
They have selected five features in hopes of breaking Portugal's unfortunate record, but it's now up to the Portuguese Academy membership to vote on the final choice. Will we stop being the country with the most submissions without a single nomination? Oh well, hope is everlasting. In any case, let's meet the finalists…
Friday, August 2, 2024 at 9:00PM 
THE DEVIL'S BATH (2024) Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala
And just like that, we're off to the races. Though the 97th Academy Awards are still half a year away, the deadline for countries to submit titles for the Best International Film category is much closer. Nations have until October 4th to choose their representative feature, which must have enjoyed a minimum seven-day theatrical release before the September 30th deadline. Considering those timeframes, it's expected that the next few months will be full of submission news as the world prepares for a cinematic Olympics of sorts. This year, Ireland and Austria are the first countries to announce their official Oscar contenders…
Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 10:30PM 
Photo by Marc Piasecki | © Getty Images for DreamWorks Animation
Paper airplanes fly through the air, zipping across the auditorium and above the audience. Some crash land on unsuspecting heads, while others sway wild into oblivion, lost in dark corners of the cinema. It's a merry sight, which only grows merrier when these crafts arrive at their intended destination – the stage – prompting applause from the crowd in good festival fashion. Within this hubbub of enthusiasm, a sense of community prevails, made more heartfelt by the presence of children among press folk, the families of filmmakers and animators excited to see how the world reacts to their work. Such was the scene at the Annecy Film Festival, as DreamWorks Animation came to celebrate its 30th anniversary and present The Wild Robot…
