Foreign Film - The Film Experience

91st Oscars. Oscar Contenders of 2018 (for the 2019 Ceremony) - For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes

AND THE WINNER IS...
Roma, Mexico's first win!


LEBANON submissions \| 2nd consecutive nomination! CAPERNAUM (Nadine Labaki) PODCAST \| INTERVIEW 120 minutes in Arabic *NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS* Like Shoplifters this is a story of abject poverty, centered around an 11 year old Syrian refugee living on his own in the streets of Lebanon. Labaki is Lebanon's most famous filmmaker and the only female director in the category this year.	POLAND 50 submissions \| 11 nominations \| 1 win COLD WAR (Pawel Pawlikowski) REVIEW 88 minutes in Polish, French, German, Italian, Croatian, and Russian *NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS* Pawlikowski is a previous winner of this category having given Poland its first win with this black and white novitiate drama Ida (2014). Like Cuarón he has made more English language films than films in his native tongue. Cold War's tragic musical romance is loosely inspired by his parents who had a long volatile relationship across Europe in the 1950s and 1960s	GERMANY 62 submissions \| 20 nominations \| 3 wins NEVER LOOK AWAY (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) REVIEW 188 minutes in German *OPENS JANUARY 25TH IN THE US* An epic drama about two art students and the father that's out to destroy their relationship. Von Donnersmarck is a previous winner of this category for The Lives of Others (2006), which was his debut film.	★ MEXICO 51 submissions \| 9 nominations \| 1st win! ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón) REVIEW \| YALITZA 135 minutes Spanish and Mixtec *currently streaming on Netflix* Cuarón is an Oscar favorite having already been nominated in multiple categories. But this memoir picture about the imagined interior life of his childhood maid/nanny is his first submission in the Foreign Language Film category. His only previous Mexican film, Y Tu Mama También, was not submitted by Mexico though Cuarón was nominated for its screenplay	JAPAN 62 submissions \| 13 nominations \| 1 win (plus 3 honorary wins) SHOPLIFTERS (Hirokazu Koreeda) INTERVIEW \| PODCAST 121 minutes in Japanese *NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS* The Palme D'or winning humanist drama about a makeshift family living on the margins of society and stealing in order to eat. Koreeda is one of Japan's most lauded directors but he's never had a film nominated in this category until now despite his rich Japanese filmmakers. He was submitted once before for Nobody Knows (2004).
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MORE ON THIS RACE...
WHAT WILL WIN?

WHAT SHOULD WIN?

WHAT WAS LEFT OUT?
Of the nine finalists, four did not make the final cut. Those were... Colombia's Birds of Passage Denmark's Guilty Kazakhstan's Ayka South Korea's Burning
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE NOMINATIONS?
87 official submissions this season Afghanistan through Georgia \| Germany through Norway \| Pakistan through Yemen Our extensive coverage of that 87 wide submission list this year... all the trailers \| all the debut directors \| all 20 female directors \| previously submitted auteurs \| Nathaniel's rankings \| 12 international hunks \| LGBT entries and Trivia \| High profile contenders that did not make the finals Belgium's Girl, winner of the Camera d'Or and a Globe and EFA nominee, Italy's Dogman, winner of Best Actor at Cannes and an EFA favourite, and Sweden's Border, another EFA favourite, were the highest profile films to miss the 9 wide finals. Countries that did not submit this year: Albania, Ethiopia, Guatamela, Haiti, Honduras, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritania, Moldova, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Senegal and Syria Countries that announced submissions but that somehow didn't make the final list: Cuba (Sergei & Sergio), and Kyrgyzstan (Night Accident)

Statistics for the Foreign Film Race The Category began officially in 1956 but 8 honory Oscar were presented to foreign films before it was an annual regular category.
Statistics, Blindspots, and Curiousities			Top 10 All Time Leaders (1947-2018)
Ten Countries Oscar Has Been Kindest To In Past 13 Years (2006-2018) 1. DENMARK - 6 noms / 1 win 2. ISRAEL - 4 nominations 3. AUSTRIA - 3 noms / 2 wins 4. (tie) GERMANY / POLAND / MEXICO - 3 noms / 1 win 7. (tie) RUSSIA / FRANCE -3 nominations 9. IRAN - 2 noms / 2 wins 10. (tie) CHILE / HUNGARY / ARGENTINA- 2 noms / 1 win Runners Up: Algeria, Canada, Lebanon, and Sweden all with 2 nominations in that time frame. The only countries from the all time top ten not represented in this "currently favored" are Spain and Japan. Oscar Is Annoyingly Resistant To... Asian cinema as a whole. Japan and Taiwan have been honored most frequently but in both cases the reason is one particular filmmaker (Akira Kurosawa and Ang Lee, respectively). China, Hong Kong, South Korea, India... they all have prolific and strong film industries but they are very rarely nominated for Foreign Language Oscars. Most Noms Without a Win The countries that have received the most nominations without a win to date are Israel (10 noms) Belgium (7 noms) [TIE] Norway and Greece (with 5 each) Top Ten Persistent Shut-Outs. Never Nominated The countries that have submitted the most w/out receiving a single nomination (the * means they made the finals once)... are: 1. Portugal (34 times) 2. Romania* (33 times) 3. Egypt (32 times) 4. (tie) The Philippines and South Korea* (29 times each) 6. Bulgaria* (28 times) 7. Venezuela* (27 times) 8. Croatia (26 times) 9. (tie) Serbia* and Turkey* and Thailand (24 times) Good luck to them all...and quickly! This is getting ridiculous. Note that only one of them is a Western European country and Oscar has always been Eurocentric. CURRENT ARTICLES ON FOREIGN FILM ARE LOCATED HERE.			#1 ITALY 28 noms / 11 wins / 3 honoraries #2 FRANCE 37 noms / 9 wins / 3 honoraries #3 GERMANY (+ EAST/WEST) 20 noms / 3 wins #4 SPAIN 19 noms / 4 wins #5 (16 noms / 4 wins... if you include the Honoraries otherwise it's 13/1) JAPAN #6 RUSSIA (15 noms / 4 wins...Russia stats in this way refer to Russia plus the Russian language nominations from the USSR stats) #7 SWEDEN 16 noms / 3 wins #8 DENMARK 15 noms / 3 wins #9 POLAND 11 noms / 1 win #10 HUNGARY 10 noms / 2 wins Runners Up: Czech Republic (8 noms / 3 wins), Mexico (9 noms / 1 win), Israel (10 noms), The Netherlands (7 noms / 3 wins), Argentina (7 noms / 2 wins) , Canada (7 noms / 1 win)

WINNERS THIS CENTURY

2019 TBA	2018 Roma Mexico	2017 A Fantastic Woman Chile	2016 The Salesman Iran	2015 Son of Saul Hungary

2014 Ida Poland 1 additional nomination (Cinematography)	2013 The Great Beauty Italy	2012 Amour Austria 4 additional noms (including Best Picture)	2011 A Separation Iran 1 additional nomination (Screenplay)	2010 In a Better World Denmark

2009 Secret In Their Eyes Argentina	2008 Departures Japan	2007 The Counterfeiters Austria	2006 The Lives of Others Germany	2005 Tsotsi South Africa

2004 The Sea Inside Spain 1 additional nomination (Makeup)	2003 Barbarian Invasions Canada 1 additional nomination (Screenplay)	2002 Nowhere in Africa Germany	2001 No Man's Land Bosnia & Herzegovina	2000 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Taiwan 9 additional noms (including Best Picture)