In Contention

Tag: Best Foreign Language Film

  • Lebanese foreign film submission ‘Where Do We Go Now?’ wins Toronto’s People’s Choice Award

    I can’t say I’m all that aware yet of Nadine Labaki’s “Where Do We Go Now?,” which Guy recently called “a serious-minded comedy with musical elements that premiered to warm reviews in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, where it earned a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury.” But the film has swooped in and nabbed the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award when many were predicting “The Artist” would charm its way to the prize. Expect a domestic distributor to pounce any day now.

    The film was recently submitted by Lebanon into the foreign film race, and one of the runners-up in Toronto, Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” was also slotted by Iran. So for a festival that usually paves the way for the major categories in an Oscar race (more on that tomorrow), Toronto has actually heated up the race for Best Foreign Language Film. Unexpected and, I might say, entirely refreshing, that.

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  • ‘Le Havre’ tapped to represent Finland in foreign film race

    I finally caught up with Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre” at Telluride two weeks ago. “I don’t count myself as the biggest Kaurismäki fan,” I wrote at the time, “but it’s very difficult to argue with the heart in this film. It should melt you a bit, if you have warm blood pumping through your veins.” I should also note, though, that André Wilms’s performance is sensational, and much of the film’s emotional undercurrent is owed to his work.

    According to Variety, the film has now been chosen by Finland to represent the country in the best Foreign Language Film race:

    “Le Havre,” directed, written and produced by Aki Kaurismaki, will rep Finland in the foreign-language film Oscar race…The pic was selected by a jury supervised by the Finnish Film Chamber. Jury members included actress, singer-songwriter Kaija Karkinen, director Aku Louhimies, producer Liisa Penttila and director-scriptwriter Ville Suhonen…The film had its world preem in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Fipresci prize and the special mention of the Ecumenical Jury. It also won best international film at the Munich Film Festival.

    Onto the on-going list of titles it goes.

    [Photo: Pandora Filmproduktion/Pyramide Productions/Sputnik/Yleisradio]

  • Wenders on why ‘Pina’ needs 3D

    Since seeing the film in February, I’ve been something of a broken record saying that Wim Wenders’s marvellous performance film “Pina” — which has been drawing rave responses at Toronto, and was recently submitted as Germany’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar — single-handedly restates the case for 3D, a technology that any number of recent Hollywood blockbusters have tarnished somewhat.

    While even the most well-executed 3D narrative films have hardly depended on the gimmick for anything more than bonus effect, 3D actively enhances the audience’s understanding of the subject in “Pina,” where movement patterns and spatial deconstruction in the late Pina Bausch’s choreography are brought to the fore, replicating the immediacy and interactivity of live performance.

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  • Iran’s ‘A Separation’ latest to enter Oscar race

    I’d say this was a no-brainer, but one should never underestimate the ability of countries to shoot themselves in the foot when selecting their submissions for the foreign-language Oscar. Happily, Iran has done no such thing, picking Asghar Farhadi’s critically beloved festival sensation “A Separation” as their pony this year.

    It’s a choice that I suspect will pay off handsomely. I’ll be astonished if the film doesn’t at least make the January shortlist — it should play well enough with general voters, but the executive committee should swoop in if it doesn’t. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine this smart, humanistic marital drama going all the way to the podium, particularly with Sony Pictures Classics — unmatched campaigners in this category — steering the film.

    Ecstatic critical notices at Toronto and Telluride (Kris’s take here) are merely the newest feather in the film’s cap: it already nabbed the Golden Bear (plus Best Actor and Actress) at February’s Berlin fest, and was released to a shower of acclaim in the UK this summer. If the buzz continues to build for this late-December release, could Sony even angle for extra attention in the highly pliable Best Original Screenplay category? A far-fetched suggestion, perhaps, but I wonder.

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  • ‘Pina’ among latest entries in foreign Oscar race

    I predicted on Twitter a couple of weeks ago that Wim Wenders’ 3D dance film “Pina” would be selected as Germany’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and that it could well be a surprise shortlist entry if the executive committee gives it a leg up. The first half of that forecast panned out today, and I’m sticking by the second — though Kris, I should add, thinks I’m off my rocker.

    It’s a riskily unconventional choice for Germany, which tends to play this game pretty safe — and has six nominations in the last nine years to show for it. “Waltz With Bashir” may have recently opened the door for documentary (or at least hybrid) filmmaking to get recognition in this category, but that was still a more narrative film than “Pina,” the bulk of which amounts to filmed performance art. It’s also the first 3D submission that I can recall.

    There’s no precedent for such a nomination, yet that novelty is exactly why I think the branch’s executive committee — which has made a concerted effort to bring a more adventurous streak to a frequently fusty category — might stand up for it.

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  • ‘Turin Horse’ among latest foreign Oscar entries

    This news has been hanging around for a few days, but amid the Venice hubbub, I haven’t found a moment to post it until today — though we did address it briefly in Friday’s Oscar Talk. With less than a month to go until the deadline, the pile of official submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is slowly growing — and the most prominent of them is a title I already reviewed at February’s Berlinale.

    That film would be Béla Tarr’s “The Turin Horse,” which won the runner-up Grand Prix at the festival and just screened at Telluride this weekend, and which I described as “a stately, granite-textured and altogether rather tremendous” work in the famously austere director’s canon. Hungary has a history of choosing ballsy and utterly doomed Oscar submissions — “Taxidermia,” anyone? — but this is the first time they’ve dared to enter a Tarr opus.

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  • Three more join the foreign Oscar fray

    With the deadline for submissions not even six weeks away, expect a number of posts in this vein before then; for now, however, the number of formal entries for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar has swelled to a modest five.

    While the first two in the game, Greece and Poland, were reasonably high-profile contenders — the latter’s entry, in particular, sounds like something of a perfect Oscar storm for this category — the most recent three are rather less prominent. Romania, Morocco and Venezuela are all angling for their first ever nomination in the Oscar race.

    Of the three, Romania’s running duck in this race is perhaps the most surprising. The Academy has remained wholly resistant to the country’s critically hailed cinematic renaissance in the last decade; indeed, the snubbing of Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” was one of the final straws that prompted a new voting system in the category. It’d be just like the Academy to finally relent for a film low on the radar, so perhaps Marian Crisan’s “Morgen” could be the one.

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  • Greece and Poland first to enter foreign Oscar race

    The Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film — or, to use its formal title, Most Inoffensively Socially Conscious Non-English-Language Feature To Pass Through The Academy’s Narrow Qualifying Hoops Whilst Remaining Sufficiently Low-Profile For Voters To Feel Like They Discovered It For Themselves — is truly the gift that gives all year round.

    Scarcely have the previous year’s nominees finally trickled out to US theaters, to a chorus of polite indifference, than countries begin formally submitting their chosen contenders for the next year’s award — and the baseless speculation and generally befuddled head-scratching begins anew. In the past few weeks, Greece and Poland have become the first countries to enter the race ahead of the Academy’s October 1 deadline — and while such early birds are rarely heard from again in the game, these two films (both from female directors, and one of which I’ve seen) are rather higher on the radar.

    Poland, in particular, appears to have intensively focus-grouped the Academy’s foreign-language branch and subsequently created their Oscar entry in a purpose-built lab: Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness” is a true-life Holocaust drama about a Leopold Socha, a reformed petty criminal who heroically helped numerous Jewish refugees hide in the sewers of Nazi-occupied Lvov.

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  • Oscar’s foreign race hasn’t found the fix

    How do you solve a problem like Best Foreign Language Film? I’m not sure you can, but in the Academy’s case, it’s certainly not for lack of trying.

    The voting process in this eternally dissatisfying ghetto category is now such a Frankenstein’s monster of stages, rules, committees, sub-committees, longlists, shortlists and more committees that it’s a wonder they manage to wind up picking a single film at the end of it all — and rather less of a wonder that said film usually carries the stale whiff of a compromise choice.

    This year’s race, thoroughly mapped out by Kris in this week’s Oscar Guide, looks headed for a typically imperfect outcome — opinions on the five films that make up the category may vary, but few would argue that the overall slate represents the key stories of world cinema in 2010. The trouble set in early, with several of the year’s biggest crossover critical hits ruled out at the submissions stage.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Foreign Language Film

    The race for Best Foreign Language Film has been covered diligently by Guy Lodge here at In Contention throughout the season. I confess that I failed to see most of the 65 submissions and, as usual, waited until the shortlist was unveiled before I really dug into the titles.

    This category has, of course, been mired in controversy ever since “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” became the last straw for quality films failing to register with a general committee that has, well, questionable artistic taste. The implementation of a band aid executive committee scenario hasn’t done much more than elevate the cynicism surrounding the process, however.

    The nominees are:

    “Biutiful” (Mexico)
    “Dogtooth” (Greece)
    “In a Better World” (Denmark)
    “Incendies” (Canada)
    “Outside the Law” (Algeria)

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 53 — BAFTA fallout, foreign language and animated short races, Banksy in L.A.

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    We’ve got another 10 days left in the 2010-2011 awards season, not that anyone’s counting. That means three more episodes of Oscar Talk and Anne and I will exit stage right, but for now, there is still, as always, plenty to chew on. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • ‘Incendies’ trailer

    While some pundits are assuming that Javier Bardem’s Best Actor nomination makes “Biutiful” the film to beat in the foreign-language category — despite the fact that recent Oscar history doesn’t favor the biggest name in the contest — my instincts tell me the real race is between Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies,” both of which Sony Pictures Classics will release in April. I haven’t caught up with either yet, though this new trailer for the latter is making me even more annoyed at myself for sleeping past an early-morning screening at Venice last year. Click on the image to watch the trailer at Apple, or check out the embed after the jump.

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  • Catch up with Oscar nominee ‘Dogtooth’

    For those of us who like to make wholly informed decisions when entering our Oscar pools, the Best Foreign Language Film category can be a bit of a thorn in the side. Unless you’re a particularly well-travelled festivalgoer, it’s mighty difficult to see all five nominated films ahead of Oscar night.

    This year is no exception, as two of them — the arguable frontrunners, “In a Better World” and “Incendies” — aren’t opening Stateside until April, while double-nominee “Biutiful” continues to creep out in limited release. The other two have been and gone in US theaters, but unless you’re lucky enough to live in one of a select few cities, chances are you didn’t see “Outside the Law” or “Dogtooth” either.

    Thankfully, for the latter film, Nexflix has come to the rescue. Yorgos Lanthimos’s disquieting adult fable, which has received perhaps the most significant publicity boost in the wake of its eyebrow-raising nomination, is already out on DVD, but curious awards-watchers can now watch it instantly on the streaming site — simplifying at least some of your homework in that category.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 50 — Special Edition! — Nod postmortem with Guy Lodge and Peter Knegt

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    Unless you’ve been under a rock this morning, you’re aware of the day’s big news. Oscar nominations were revealed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 24 categories. And, as is typically, there were enough eyebrow-raisers to give us a ton to talk about. We’ve got IC’s own Guy Lodge and indieWIRE‘s Peter Knegt on board. Also, it’s our 50th episode! Let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Tweak this

    I’ve made one (and only one, lest I get carried away) change to my final predictions, FYI.  I think I’m going to switch my final foreign language pick from Algeria’s “Outside the Law” to — wait for it — Greece’s “Dogtooth.” My former line-up didn’t include one of the (perceived, as nothing is official) executive committee saves, and that would be a first (in the admittedly short history of the executive committee’s existence).

    Additionally, colleague Steve Pond reminded me that the final nominations selection committee tends to have more in common with the executive committee than the general committee (which narrows the field and later picks the winners).  Voting on the category took place after a series of screenings this weekend, so it’s all rather fresh.  So I wonder about the scrutiny Algeria’s entry has undergone vis a vis historical accuracy.

    The Swedish hopeful is highly unlikely to make the cut, from the way I hear it, while no one has really seen the Japanese entry in order to gauge.  So I’ll join Pond, as well as Guy, in picking an out-there selection for the fifth spot (not that it’ll have a chance in hell at winning).  Hopefully last minute jitters won’t get the better of me.

    My final (for real, this time) picks are here.

    [Photo: Kino International]

  • 1/24 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Rich’s two Americas, meet the foreign film exec committee, Jonze interviews Russell

    • Frank Rich sees two Americas in “The Social Network” and “True Grit.” [New York Times]

    • David Poland sits down with the latter’s cinematographer, Roger Deakins. [The Hot Blog]

    • Meet the executive committee charged with saving esoteric foreign films hopefuls. [The Odds]

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Globes chatter, Batman buzz, foreign Oscar surprises

    • The Golden Globes did their thing, with Ricky Gervais’s antics drawing more attention than the sweep for “The Social Network.”

    • David Fincher’s film continued its dominance at the Broadcast Film Critics’ Association Awards, which Kris reported from first-hand.

    • As if to remind us that there’s more than one film in the race, this week’s BAFTA nominations were ruled by “The King’s Speech” and “Black Swan.”

    • Sadly, we bade farewell this week to regular columnist Chad, who left us with his idiosyncratic Best of 2010 list.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 49 — Final pre-nod discussion

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    We’re moving into the last weekend before the Academy’s big nominations reveal on Tuesday. Anne is calling from Sundance, where the festival is just gearing up, leaving me alone in LA to my devices. But there are a number of things to address in these final pre-nod hours, so let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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