• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.
• As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.
• We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.
• In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”
Two striking films in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race probe the theme of moral drift, both individual and communal, bred in a rural European community – the very opposite of what Hillary Clinton meant by “It takes a village.”
One of them, Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” you’ve probably heard of. The other you’ll hopefully hear much more about in the months to come: Danish entry “Terribly Happy” is a terrific thriller from Oscar-nominated writer-director Henrik Ruben Genz that has taken its homeland by storm and is ripe for a U.S. remake.
A wickedly comic flipside to Haneke’s solemn social critique, Genz’s film trades in twisty suspense and coal-black humor as it follows the misadventures of Robert (Jakob Cedergren), a mysteriously disgraced Copenhagen cop reassigned to an unwelcoming one-horse town with its own share of nasty secrets.
As Robert gets drawn into the void by a hesitant relationship with abused housewife Ingerlise (Lene Maria Christensen), the film has drawn comparisons to the Coen Brothers of “Blood Simple” and even the David Lynch of “Twin Peaks” in its cool unveiling of the macabre within the mundane.
Two interesting news tidbits relating to the Best Foreign Language Film race surfaced yesterday, the first of which is the United Kingdom’s bold, wholly unexpected decision to submit Havana Marking’s acclaimed documentary “Afghan Star” as their entry.
The news is surprising for a number of reasons. It’s the first time the UK has submitted a documentary in the race — perhaps the selectors were inspired by the groundbreaking nomination of “Waltz With Bashir” in the category earlier this year.
Moreover, the Afghanistan-centered film — which contains dialogue in English, Dari and Pashtun — marks a dramatic change from the Welsh-language features that BAFTA almost always puts forward for Oscar consideration. (Few people give the Brits much thought in this category, but they’ve actually been nominated twice before: for “Hedd Wyn” in 1993 and “Solomon and Gaenor” in 1999.)
As I said before, the October 1 “deadline” for Best Foreign Language Film submissions isn’t quite as rigid as it sounds: assorted additions and alterations tend to be made before the Academy officially announces the list.
The first of these late developments comes from Colombia, with the late submission of Ciro Guerra’s “The Wind Journeys,” which bowed at Cannes and recently played at Toronto. A tale of an elderly accordion player travelling the country with the young musician he’s mentoring, it apparently combines gentle sentiment, generational themes with picturesque landscapes. Lots for the Academy to like there, perhaps.
With the unveiling of a semi-solid list of contenders, you’ll notice that Kris has committed to some predictions in the category. Meanwhile, I’ve updated mine here. A stab in the dark really, particularly without having seen the vast majority of the films, though there is a level of reasoning here and there.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Thanks to emails for keeping me on track here, but there are some titles I failed to mention. The number is up to 40 now.
EARLIER: Anne Thompson is reporting that Denmark has submitted “Terribly Happy.” And Nat has Mexico’s entry as “Backyard.” Make it 31 films.
STILL EARLIER: Guy is so much better at keeping track of this stuff than I am. But some things of note recently:
Serbia has switched it’s entrant from “Here and There” to “Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu” (“St. George Shoots the Dragon”).
“Ded na Si Lolo” will represent the Philippines and Canada has selected “I Killed My Mother.”
indieWIRE is keeping a nice list of films going, but generally speaking, no one does this category better than Nat Rogers at The Film Experience.
One newsy-ish item: There is talk of “London River” potentially being the Algerian entry. More than 50% of the film is in French, so it’s possible (and would make a handsome nominee, in my opinion).
Full list of submitted titles after the jump.