International Oscars - Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and Uruguay

by Nathaniel R

After that first round of news, we have more info on the International Oscar race to share. First, we have three more official submissions for the upcoming race: Estonia will submit the documentary Smoke, Sauna, Sisterhood; South Korea has gone very mainstream choosing the earthquake drama Concrete Utopia  (that probably means no nomination given that the Academy generally only pays attention to South Korea when they lean auteur... and even then they don't pay much attention despite South Korea having a very healthy and respected film industry); Finally, Uruguay will submit the comedy Family Album about a father and his teenage son forming a band. 

Even if those three films don't sound right up Oscar's alley, you really never know, do you? It all depends on how the volunteer voters who screen enough of the films to vote respond to their selections. We also now know two more unofficial finalist lists from Germany and Netherlands, both of which have won the category multiple times...

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Finland submits "Girl Picture" (ihana!) and other Oscar news

by Nathaniel R

You all know that we here at TFE are huge fans of Girl Picture and today comes news that Finland has chosen it as their Oscar submission. While we wish its US release had been noisier (it was still playing in NYC last week) we've talked it up to everyone we know and all of you of course. It's one of the seven most recent official submissions to be announced. More after the jump... 

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Best International Film: Chile, Netherlands, Spain

by Cláudio Alves

I'm pleased to bring you the annual grouped reviews of the less high profile submissions for Best International Film Oscar. Many major contenders have already been reviewed (check the end of this article for links), but others remain unexamined. With 93 titles to consider, that's bound to happen. So as we wait for December 21st, when the Academy announces its 15-wide shortlist for this particular race, let's take a look at some of those submissions, starting with three previous champions from the category's history.

Chile won once before, while the Netherlands has three Oscars, and Spain counts four previous victories. This year, they submitted a portrait of colonialism, a drama about war's hell, and a dark comedy starring an Oscar-winning international star… 

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Seven new Oscar submissions, French finalists, and a potential Israel/Palestine conflict

by Nathaniel R

LET IT BE MORNING

The announcements of Oscar submissions from various countries are rolling in fast now. If you've missed previous posts we've already covered the submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland,  Albania, Ireland, Kyrgzstan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Germany, and Spain and have reviewed three of the films. In today's huge update we have finalists lists from Chile, France, and Sweden as well as official submissions from Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Somalia, South Korea, and Taiwan. But let's start with Israel as we foresee complications.

ISRAEL
Each year Israel's own Oscar style prize "The Ophir" is held around this time and whichever film wins becomes the automatic submission. They've only run into trouble with this system twice in the past (once for a film that had too much English and the other time with a tie so they had to vote again for Oscar purposes). But this year might be another. Let It Be Morning, with a largely Palestinian cast from source material by a Palestinian author, was the big winner at the Ophirs so it became the Israeli submission. While the director Erin Kolirin (of The Band's Visit fame) is Israeli, the film is about Palestinians and earlier this summer, the cast refused to attend the Cannes premiere because the festival labelled the film as an Israeli film. One imagines they'll object to this film representing Israel at the Oscars, for the same reason. Potentially complicating matters further is that Palestine also submits to the Oscars...

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What will the Netherlands submit to Oscar?

by Nathaniel R

Will The Netherlands submit "De Oost", currently streaming on Amazon?

For those of you who like to follow the admittedly super niche drama of the submission battles for Oscar's best International Feature Film race, we have another finalist list to report. The Netherlands will be announcing their submission in early October but we have their 14 wide finalist list. The first thing to note is that Paul Verhoeven's excellent lesbian nun drama Benedetta is not on it. Perhaps it's because the Dutch director who The Netherlands have submitted four times (Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Black Book)  is now working in France mostly. Elle, his most recent previous picture, was a submission for France and perhaps Benedetta wasn't deemed Dutch enough? Only three of the fourteen possibilities from The Netherlands have anything like an international profile and all three are about young soldiers so we suspect the Dutch will be sending a war drama.

After the jump a brief decription of each finalist, one of which is already in release in the US...

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