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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Uruguay submits "The Employer and the Employee"

Our fifth official submission for the 95th Oscars Best International Feature Film race has been announced.

🇺🇾 THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYEE
Uruguay (nothing from 22 submissions... though they had technially had 1 nominee but it was subsequently disqualified)

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Best International Feature: Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay

by Cláudio Alves

Even though the Best International Feature category exists to celebrate world cinema, AMPAS tends to be biased in favor of European films. Productions from Africa, Asia, and Latin America tend to get shortchanged, although many stupendous films harken to those continents. Those tendencies may be waning though; In the last decade, only half of the winners came from Europe. With recent victories for Mexico and Chile, maybe we're living through a newfound openness from the Academy towards Latin American excellence? Speaking of which, we've already reviewed the flicks from Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. Now, it's time to examine the submissions of Costa Rica, Peru, and Uruguay… 

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International Oscar - will we have a record number of competing films?

Since the Thanksgiving Eve update we've had the following films join the competition for Oscar's Best International Feature Film bringing the current number up to 84.

• Bangladesh - Sincerely Yours, Dhaka which is an anthology from multiple directors about life in Dhaka (streaming on Netflix)
• Belarus - Persian Lessons
• Hong Kong - Better Days which is  teen crime drama about a bully victim and a street thug who protects her (for rent on Amazon | more on Hong Kong and Oscar)
• Iceland - Agnes Joy a mother daughter drama
• Pakistan - Zindagi Tamasha / Circus of Life is about an elderly man who loves music whose life is changed by a social media post which brings him in conflict with the strict Muslim society in which he lives. 
• Serbia - Dara in Jasenovac  *sniffle* Was really hoping it'd be Father which I looooved at CIFF but perhaps this Holocaust drama about two kids in a concentration camp is stellar, too?
• Uruguay - Aleli in which three adult siblings fight over their father's home when he dies (streaming on Netflix)

The record for most competitors for Best International Feature Film is 92 (the 2017 competition). 2019 tried to break that with 93 submissions but two were disqualified, which allowed 2017 to keep the record. We're just 8 titles short (if none of the ones we've heard about are disqualified) of a new record for 2020. You can follow this list on the charts here or at letterboxd.

Interview: Germán Tejeira on 'A Moonless Night,' Uruguay's Oscar Submission

Jose here. When I scheduled my interview with director Germán Tejeira who is based in Montevideo, I hadn’t been counting on the internet being unaware that Uruguay had gotten rid of their own Daylight Savings Time, a practice which was deemed “old fashioned” and “inefficient” by the progressive government. We had to reschedule the interview, but Tejeira was kind enough to laugh the confusion off and even sent me an article which explained how this new practice had brought chaos within his own country. It was an anecdote I found peculiarly surreal, something out of a movie perhaps, and one that for that matter reminded me of Tejeira’s own A Moonless Night, a charming account of three men trying to find their, existential, way in the Uruguayan countryside during New Year’s Eve.

Cesar (Marcel Keroglian) is a cab driver spending the holiday with his ex-wife’s new family, Antonio (Roberto Suarez) is a magician en route to a presentation whose car breaks down stranding him and his rabbit Oliver, Molgota (Daniel Melingo) is a singer released from jail a day earlier so he can perform at a New Year’s party. Their routine is altered by a blackout, but to say their stories cross paths in a traditional way would be a disservice to Tejeira’s lovely screenplay, and his perceptive direction. The film has been selected as Uruguay’s Oscar representative and I discussed that with the director, as well as his perception of what films should provoke in spectators, and whether Uruguay has a well defined “cinematic identity”.

Read the interview after the jump...

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