In Contention

Tag: Best Foreign Language Film

  • Going with ‘Departures’

    Waltz with BashirI said yesterday that if I got cold feet on any of my predictions I would let you know, and less than 24 hours later, I’ve decided to take the dive on “Departures.”

    A lot of foreign film committee members really responded to this film, and it’s easy to see why.  It is “the kind of soft, safe, solid work that tends to take out the frontrunner in this category time and again,” I wrote yesterday.  “It deals with death in a really affecting way, at once eerie, humorous and, ultimately, moving.  When it threatens to pass into trite territory, it finds a way to stay fresh and alive, very human and absolutely satisfying…When you look back over the history of this category, you see a certain bias against non-traditional filmmaking,” i.e. an animated/documentary hybrid, however powerful.

    Today Pete Hammond has offered his thoughts on the matter, noting that “no animated film, no documentary and no film from Israel has ever won here so it would be three firsts. If not ‘Bashir,’ most pundits then move to the Palme d’Or winner from France, ‘The Class,’” Hammond continues, “but some voters I talked to thought it was dull. One even left after the first half. The committee at large likely did not vote this in on the first round and the academy’s executive committee put in it in the mix (they won’t confirm this but sources indicate that was the case). If you are looking for a pool winner go with Japan for the upset. That country’s film,’Departures’ is one the original foreign language committee LOVED.”  (UPDATE: Pete has now gone ahead and predicted “Departures” for the win as well.)

    Then there was that interesting bit of information from commenter Josh yesterday, who said, “‘Departures’ is also the least-screened nominee–if you didn’t see it at an AMPAS members screening, you probably didn’t see it. That’s an old strategy, restricting the pool of voters to the people who’ve gone out of their way to see your movie…The kind of voters who didn’t even nominate ‘Gomorrah’ or ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ might well find the other nominees a bit cold, and go for a gentler movie that’s lovely, lyrical and a touch melodramatic.”

    Despite the precursor record “Waltz with Bashir” has tallied up, if you look at Academy history, it faces an uphill climb.  And beyond stylistic bias, it could be as simple as one guy at Hollywood Elsewhere put it (rather bluntly): “It’s a cartoon and it makes Israel look bad.”  There might be some painful truth there, however misinformed the opinion might be.

    In any case, there’s something in the winds here.  Maybe it’s folly, maybe it’s an attempt at injecting the race with some sort of excitement, maybe I’m falling on my sword, but I’m going to step out onto a limb and predict “Departures” to upset “Waltz with Bashir” tomorrow night.  You only live once, I guess.

    The adjustments have been made in the usual places, here, here and, of course, here.  Ditto the sidebar.

  • Could ‘Departures’ upset ‘Waltz with Bashir’ in the foreign language film category?

    DeparturesNow that I’ve finally seen Japanese foreign film contender “Departures,” the last of the year’s nominees that had yet to cross my path, I thought it a good idea to go ahead and toss up a final look at the foreign language film category.  Over the last few weeks I’ve dived into the short film nominees, the doc shorts and the doc features.  This is the last of those categories, which require voters to see all of the nominees before being permitted to vote.

    I spent the last two days with all of the foreign contenders, re-watching “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” “The Class” and presumed frontrunner “Waltz with Bashir” and finally taking in the bleak “Revanche,” as well as “Departures.”  The question I’m left with, much as I was in the documentary feature category a few days back (in a piece that was largely taken out of context across the net) is this: have we succumbed to the group think yet again?  Because I have a feeling “Departures” is waiting to spoil.

    It’s a beautiful film in a lot of ways, certainly not a more artistic achievement than “Waltz” but the kind of soft, safe, solid work that tends to take out the frontrunner in this category time and again.  It deals with death in a really affecting way, at once eerie, humorous and, ultimately, moving.  When it threatens to pass into trite territory, it finds a way to stay fresh and alive, very human and absolutely satisfying.

    When you look back over the history of this category, you see a certain bias against non-traditional filmmaking.  The fantasy of frontrunner “Pan’s Labyrinth” fell to the straight-forward “The Lives of Others,” a moment relatively few of us saw coming but seemed totally rational for many in hindsight.  The epic “Hero” and the artfully renderd “The Man Without a Past” both lost out to the classic stylings of “Nowhere in Africa” while the whimsy of “Amélie” fell to “No Man’s Land.”  It happens.

    So why, exactly, is it a foregone conclusion that an animated documentary hybrid film will walk away with the Oscar?  Certainly the excuse isn’t: “Because it’s the best of the nominees,” right?  It’s a sentiment I happen to agree with, but that argument never holds water.  What’s more, the film is a mere 90 minutes, while every other nominee stretches past the two hour mark.  You might think a shorter entry would be a respite to voters, but only three times in the last 10 years has the shortest film won.  And each of those was more than 90 minutes long.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: BAFTAs, Berlin, pre-Oscar jitters

    Aside from two major precursors, it’s been a slow week for news — which leads to a lot of prediction second-guessing.

    • “Slumdog” swept at the BAFTAs, which also put new wind in Mickey Rourke’s sails. We live-blogged it here.

    • The “Slumdog” streak inevitably continued at the WGA Awards, where “Milk” picked up some hardware too.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column was just eager to move on already.

    • Taking a closer look at the often inscrutable Best Documentary Short race.

    • Speaking of documentaries, we wondered if a win for “Man on Wire” is the foregone conclusion that people think it is.

    • On a similar tack, do we have a real race in the Best Foreign Language Film category?

    • In a bit of a blow to next week’s Oscarcast, Peter Gabriel has nixed his participation.

    • A survey of some of the industry’s top DPs suggests that “Slumdog” looks like the one to beat for Best Cinematography too.

    • Should we be mindful of a third possibility in the Best Actor race?

    • Perhaps another underdog, “Frozen River,” has hidden strengths in the competition.

    • Away from the Oscar beat, the Berlinale continued its quiet progress, with Stephen Frears’ “Chéri” possibly one to watch.

  • Is ‘The Class’ in a position to upset ‘Bashir?’

    (UPDATE: I see Dave Karger is placing his money on “The Class” too. Interesting.)

    Yesterday, Kris took a look at the Best Documentary Feature category, and wondered whether the winner there is quite the foregone conclusion that most people think. Supporting his argument was the category’s unusual rule that voters have to have seen all five contenders before casting their ballots –- a rule which can make the category less susceptible to consensus thinking than elsewhere, as voters are forced to make aesthetic decisions for themselves rather than letting the campaigns decide for them.

    It’s a situation that can either consolidate a frontrunner’s appeal, or throw up a surprise as voters lose their hearts to a less-publicised gem. And while I agree with Kris that the latter is a possibility in the doc race, I’ve been wondering lately whether a similar upset could be brewing in the Best Foreign Language Film race –- which also requires voters to view all the nominees.

    For some time, “Waltz With Bashir” has been installed as the de facto frontrunner in this race –- and with good reason. It’s vastly acclaimed (remember the National Society of Film Critics named it the year’s best film, period), wildly inventive, won a number of significant precursors (though it recently stumbled at the BAFTAs) and, crucially, has a cache of political currency that could seal the deal for the frequently high-minded voters in this category.

    But it has a number of strikes against it too. It’s the first animated film ever to be nominated in this category, as well as the first documentary –- and the Academy isn’t exactly known for embracing the new. Given that voters in this field tend to be older Academy members, are we sure that they will take an animated effort seriously here? And are we sure that they won’t be put off by the film’s challenging, oblique structure? I’m not.

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  • The Bagger gets it

    As if we needed any more reasons to love David Carr, he has come out in full support of Matteo Garrone’s superb “Gomorrah,” citing its Oscar snub as “criminal”:

    (The Bagger) can’t get the movie out of his mind. There is a kind of moral certainty to the film – deeply corrupt, remarkably brutal – that makes everything make sense within the four corners of the movie. It’s full of likable, familiar types, but they just happen to have the habit of blowing people’s brains out. What does it say about culture when primordial evil expresses itself in a kid who might live right down the block?

    Indeed. The Academy may believe that this masterpiece doesn’t ‘deliver’ as effectively as, say, the thoroughly average “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” but he (and we) ain’t fooled. The film opens Stateside next month; don’t let the lack of a puny Oscar nod stop you from seeing it.

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Globe surprises, best shots, BAFTA nods

    Sorry the Weekly Wrap feature has been M.I.A. these past few weeks — between the holidays and various disasters, they got a bit forgotten. Anyway, it’s back this week, and what a busy week it was:

    • In a new annual institution at IC, Kris reviewed the top 10 shots of the year here … and here.

    • The Golden Globes threw up several surprises, but the biggest one was what a deeply satisfying evening it was.

    • Following that ceremony, this week’s Off the Carpet column wondered whether the Oscars can measure up.

    • While the Globes gained credibility, BAFTA threw theirs to the wind with a curious slate of nominations … though “Slumdog Millionaire” once more sits pretty.

    • But for omitting “Gomorrah” from their 9-film shortlist, AMPAS’ foreign-language committee earns this week’s biggest dunce cap.

    • The American Cinema Editors revealed their nominees. Everyone yawned in unison.

    • Meanwhile, the costume designers completed this year’s guild citations.

    • Taking a breather from the precursor beat, we got chatting to the delightful Amy Adams.

    • The Sundance Festival started this week … but is anyone watching?

    • In other film festival news, Berlin has announced some intriguing premieres.

    • Finally, with whispers circulating that “Gran Torino” could spoil in the Best Picture race, how much of a Best Actor threat is Clint Eastwood?

  • ‘Gomorrah’ doesn’t deliver, says AMPAS

    Kris has already given the philistines on the Academy’s foreign-language film committee a deserved telling-off for sidelining Italy’s astonishing entry “Gomorrah,” but I feel compelled to add my voice to his — not least because, if I had my way, Matteo Garrone’s cinematic gut-punch about the Camorra crime syndicate would be in line for a Best Picture nod, not just a puny ghetto-category citation.

    I could be here all day if I decided to go through the innumerable landmark films, from “City of God” to “The Celebration” to “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” that have been similarly mistreated by this ever-disappointing branch of voters, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when they failed us yet again, right?

    And yet I was, because the newly formed executive committee, which added an extra three titles to the list of six elected by the main body, was specifically designed to avoid such travesties. I can believe that they may well have used one of their slots to save France’s masterpiece “The Class” from exclusion, and if that’s the case, I’m most grateful. (Though I still wouldn’t put it past the boneheads to omit it from the final five.) Hell, it’s not inconceivable to me that they coud have stepped in on behalf of a popular favourite like “Waltz With Bashir” — the ignorance of the larger committee knows no bounds.

    But even given that worst case scenario, and speaking as someone who has seen 8 of the 9 shortlisted titles, I can’t fathom how the executive committee didn’t deem “Gomorrah” worthy of their company. What was the rule change for, if not to protect challenging, relevant, widely acclaimed works like Garrone’s film? 

    Well, Jeff Wells has done some digging, and seems to have found the explanation. He spoke to a member of the committee, who had this to say:

    Voices in the foreign branch’s executive elite committee just didn’t think Gomorrah “delivered in the way it could or should have,” he said. “It’s not a matter of it not being heart-warming. It’s a matter of our respecting the film without believing that it really brought the goods home.”

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  • 1/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    Gomorrah• Stop the presses, Tom O’Neil meets the Carpetbagger at the Globes. [Gold Derby]

    • Scott Foundas on the “Gomorrah” foreign committee snub. [LA Weekly]

    • David Poland talks to Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins. [The Hot Blog]

    • David Carr is stoked about the “new kind of prom queen” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” represents. [The Carpetbagger]

    • It’s likely to become a tired (if true) trend: David Gritten calls the film “the first film of the Obama era.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Patrick Goldstein considers “Gran Torino” reason enough to warrant a Clint Eastwood class on acting career management. [The Big Picture]

  • Foreign film shortlist revealed, ‘Gomorrah’ snubbed

    This is the most vile of all Academy committees.  They prove their disdain for truly great cinema year in and year out (let’s not forget last year’s snubs of “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “Persepolis” early on), and they’ve done it again this year, skewering Matteo Garrone’s blistering “Gomorrah,” leaving it for the dogs, cast aside, abandoned.

    The almighty foreign language film committee has chosen the following to proceed to the next stage of the season:

    “3 Monkeys” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan — Turkey)
    “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (Uli Edel — Germany)
    “The Class” (Laurent Cantet — France)
    “Departures” (Yojiro Takita — Japan)
    “Everlasting Moments” (Jan Troell — Sweden)
    “The Necessities of Life” (Benoit Pilon — Canada)
    “Revanche” (Gotz Spielmann — Austria)
    “Tear This Heart Out” (Roberto Sneider — Mexico)
    “Waltz with Bashir” (Ari Folman — Israel)

    Turns out Guy correctly foresaw only four of these in his post this morning.  From these, I’d anticipate “3 Monkeys,” “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” “The Class,” “Everlasting Moments” and, the likely winner, “Waltz with Bashir” to make the final five.

    (Thanks to Blake for passing along the list, and kudos to him for anticipating the “Gomorrah” shaft.  I just wanted to disregard all that talk about the committee having an issue with the film’s violence, but you can’t give these bozos the benefit of the doubt, I guess.)

  • Foreign film shortlist to drop soon

    Waltz with BashirI believe the 9-title shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film is due today, but details on the announcement are oddly hard to come by, so I could be wrong.

    In any case, it’s one I’m having a tough time calling. The new voting system should ensure that some of the year’s most acclaimed contenders are spared the indignity of being left off the shortlist (as happened, notoriously, to “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “Persepolis” last year), so it’s difficult to see favorites “Waltz With Bashir” (fresh from its Globe win) and “Gomorrah” missing the cut. 

    I’d like to say that the best film of 2008, “The Class,” is similarly assured a spot, but it’s a risky, tough-minded docudrama, and I’m not sure how the committee (even the executive panel created to keep things in check) will respond to it — especially with “Gomorrah” and “Bashir” also occupying contemporary, genre-spanning territory. Fingers crossed. 

    Beyond that, my predictions get shaky. I think my projected list is a little heavy on European entries, but it’s hard to predict which one/s will miss. The Academy invariably throws a few less-heralded curveballs into the mix, but with 67 entries to choose from (and many of them fairly unknown quantities), it’s anyone’s guess which obscurities have caught the committee’s eye.

    (More thoughts, and my predicted shortlist, below the cut.)

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  • BAFTA announces foreign-language nominees

    I remain perplexed as to why they announce these separately from the main field of nominees (why further ghettoise a ghetto category?), but oh well. The BAFTA nominees for Best Film Not In The English Language are:

    “The Baader Meinhof Complex”
    “Gomorrah”
    “I’ve Loved You So Long”
    “Persepolis”
    “Waltz With Bashir”

    Hardly surprising, though you’d think the dismal UK reviews for “The Baader Meinhof Complex” might have put them off a bit. Better options out there, folks… I’m just sayin’. (I’m not sure whether “The Class”‘s late-February release date made it ineligible, but in any case, why has this masterwork been so sorely overlooked this awards season?)

    Can’t really complain about the rest. You know where I stand on two of them in particular, while I’m glad to see “Persepolis”‘s distant UK release date hasn’t caused the film to slip their minds.

  • INTERVIEW: ‘Gomorrah’ author Roberto Saviano

    Roberto SavianoI’m pretty sure that only in Hollywood can you find publicity mobilized behind a targeted man for the purposes of securing an Oscar nomination (and, of course, prepping a film release).  But there Roberto Saviano was yesterday at the…wait, I probably shouldn’t even mention the hotel should I?

    Saviano has been pegged for assassination (let’s not mince words) by the Neapolitan Camorra organized crime syndicate following the massive success of his book “Gomorrah,” adapted for the screen this year by a swath of writers and entering the Oscar race as Italy’s foreign language film submission.  Peeved at how deep Saviano’s book plunges behind the veil of the wide-reaching organization, the result of “great rage” as the author describes the passion that drove him within its pages, the Camorra has reportedly declared they want Saviano dead by Christmas.

    A highly sincere security guy/bodyguard was my first impression, me waving my iPhone as the only device concealed on my person — I swear.  Moving into the Spartan hotel room, Saviano was seated in the most unassuming manner, feet crossed in front like a child passing the time.  His bald head and dark eyebrows set off a striking complexion, and he certainly looks as young as his 29 years.  Which makes the achievement of “Gomorrah,” written in a style compared to the “non-faction” of Truman Capote, all the more impressive.

    The film adaptation, spear-headed by Saviano and director Matteo Garrone, is an absolute success, managing to steer clear of any modern cliches its multiple narrative structure might have allowed.  It took Cannes by storm over the summer, landed nominations across the board at the European Film Awards and has already been bandied about in this space as a potential Oscar spoiler in more than just the anticipated Best Foreign Language Film category.

    And now, those who can make that kind of thing happen are aiming to do just that.  “Gomorrah,” it seems, won’t be settling for the obligatory tip of the hat in one ghettoized field, nor should it.  And if anything, it ought to be a testament to Saviano’s courage (the guy is in hiding for Christ’s sake) if the film manages to be seen and awarded by more than the already fickle and questionable foreign language film committee.

    I spoke with Saviano, through a translator, for about a half hour.  Rather than piece together an interview article I thought I’d let the exchange speak for itself.  I didn’t realize how much of an honor it was to meet the guy until maybe half-way through, and when I tell him I think he’s a hero, I assure you I mean it.  Have a listen:

    [display_podcast]

  • Poor UK reviews for ‘Baader Meinhof’

    With a higher international profile than most of the other submissions in the category, Germany’s controversial “The Baader Meinhof Complex” would appear to be headed for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination — and there is talk that film has screened well for Academy members.

    However, with nominees in this category generally receiving so much less public attention than in others, critical reception can be an important factor in the voting — and it’s in that department that things aren’t quite going to plan for Uli Edel’s film. Trade paper reviews have been lukewarm, with Variety deeming it “long and humdrum,” and Screen International declaring that it “emotionally flatlines, even as it fascinates.” (For my part, I thought it engrossing enough but dramatically opaque.)

    Now, on the eve of the film’s UK release, it has been even more harshly dismissed by critics here. In a severe one-star review, The Independent’s Anthony Quinn writes:

    How far was Germany’s recent Nazi past to blame for the rise of the Red Army Faction? How did a small group of radical left-wing students of the 1960s turn into one of the most feared terrorist units of the 1970s? What was the nature of the disputes that eventually split apart the RAF, and what resonance does their legacy have today? Any one of these questions might have been a useful co-ordinate by which to plot a narrative … But it turns out he hasn’t answered any of them. His approach has simply been to cram everything he knows about the Baader Meinhof years into a running time of two and a half hours. It is really the most unhelpful and unenlightening film on the subject you could possibly imagine.

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  • ‘O’ Horten’ trailer

    Bent Hamer’s “O’ Horten,” Norway’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film, has just got the shiny Apple treatment for its trailer. It looks melancholy, sweetly strange and altogether rather winning, as one would expect from the always interesting Hamer, whose Matt Dillon-starring 2005 effort “Factotum” really deserved more notice.

    The trailer comes complete with besotted quotes from Kenneth Turan and Lisa Schwarzbaum, and I’m hearing a fair bit of Oscar buzz around this one — that February 20 release date is auspicious indeed. Two years ago, Sony Pictures Classics released surprise winner “The Lives of Others” around the same time, and it paid off handsomely. Are they planning a similar coup for “O’ Horten”?

    With so many of the presumed frontrunners in the category on the bleak, gritty side, the voters may well gravitate towards a gentler, seemingly more sentimental contender like this.

  • Is ‘Gomorrah’ this year’s ‘City of God’?

    Since May, based on nothing but a gut feeling following the film’s Cannes reception, I’ve been predicting that Matteo Garrone’s astonishing “Gomorrah” would score nominations for Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing — in addition to a Best Foreign Language Film nod. (Garrone has recently slipped from my Best Director predictions, but he’s still on my radar.)

    It may seem a far-fetched proposition, but clearly I’m not alone in thinking it’s possible. The news this morning that distributor IFC Films has shifted the film’s L.A. release to December, in order to qualify for main-category Oscar consideration, is a clear vote of confidence. One wonders if they have “City of God” at the back of their minds — a similarly violent, kinetic foreign-language study of urban social decay that stunned pundits in 2004 when it scooped four Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

    It’s a slightly different situation, of course — “City of God”‘s amazing haul was surely partly motivated by the Academy’s embarrassment over its exclusion the previous year from the foreign-language race. “Gomorrah,” however, is eligible for the gold in that category this year, so the Academy may feel that would be sufficient recognition for it.

    Still, we all know how the directors’ branch of Academy likes to throw arthouse curveballs now and then (in addition to Fernando Meirelles, think Mike Leigh and Pedro Almodovar), while I think a Best Adapted Screenplay nod looks increasingly likely given this year’s sparse slate of contenders in that category. (The Hollywood Reporter agrees that the film’s writing may represent its best shot.)

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  • 11/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    Ben Stiller• David Chen junkets Danny Boyle on the director’s inspirations. [/Film]

    • David Poland is being pissy about when Paramount wants to screen their Oscar contender this year. [The Hot Blog]

    • Lou Lumenick rounds up the infinitely boring denials and foreplay coming from the “Australia” camp.  Can we just get to the movie already and stop with the lame “news” bytes? [Lumeick on Film]

    • Noah Forrest is kind of over James Bond. [Movie City News]

    • Steven Zeitchik gives “Slumdog Millionaire” another look and still loves what he sees. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Logan Hill, meanwhile, talks to the film’s standout Dev Patel. [Vulture]

    • Sasha Stone pegs the season as the year of the showcase perf. [Awards Daily]

    • Chris Lee corners “Changeling” star Angelina Jolie about life and stuff. [The Envelope]

    • As the Buzzmeter rumbles to life, slowly, a few more pundits chime in with Tom O’Neil. [Gold Derby]

    • “Gomorrah” producer Domenico Procacci and IFC Films won’t be content with a mere Best Foreign Language Film mention. [Variety]

    • Museum of the Moving Image honoree Ben Stiller talks his feting to Daniel Frankel. [Variety]

    • Dave Karger puts Frank Langella’s likely Oscar clip out there for all to see. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • ‘The Class’ heads Louis Delluc shortlist

    The Cesar may be the most internationally recognised award for French cinema, but the Louis Delluc Prize is arguably the most prestigious. Now in its 73rd year, the prize is awarded annually to a single film deemed by a select jury to represent the year’s finest achievement in French filmmaking.

    Previous winners include Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “Les Diaboliques,” “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “Au Revoir, Les Enfants,” so you have an idea of the level of prestige we’re talking about here. In recent years, they have commendably tended to favour underdogs — choosing “Intimacy” over “Amelie” in 2001, for example, or last year selecting “Couscous (Le Graine et le Mulet)” over “La Vie en Rose” or “Love Songs.”

    Now, they have announced their shortlist of seven films vying for this year’s prize. The three most high-profile titles on the list are, obviously, Laurent Cantet’s Oscar frontrunner “The Class,” Olivier Assayas’ delightful “Summer Hours” and Arnaud Desplechin’s “A Christmas Tale.” (Desplechin won the 2004 Delluc for “Kings and Queen.”) All, I think, are wonderful films — “The Class,” in particular, grows richer and deeper the more I think about it.

    Rounding out the list are “La Vie Moderne,” “Seraphine,” “Le Premiere Venu” and “Dernier Maquis,” while their Best First Film award will be fought between “Versailles,” “Le Tueur” and actress Sandrine Bonnaire’s highly personal documentary “Her Name is Sabine” — which I caught on TV the other day and was thoroughly moved by.

    I’m very surprised at the omission of “I’ve Loved You So Long” — still my favourite film of the year to date — from either list, but you can’t have everything.

  • Still nobody knows anything

    At least, that’s the message I get from Pete Hammond’s latest column, in which he somewhat half-heartedly claims that the Best Picture frontrunners at this stage are “WALL-E,” “The Dark Knight” and “Changeling.” In that order, apparently — with “Slumdog Millionaire” creeping up behind.

    I realize Hammond has access to more Academy members than I do (not hard, since I know none), but I find that hard to swallow. Of the summer blockbusters, “The Dark Knight” looks to me to have more campaigning momentum than “WALL-E,” though I’m still not predicting it as a nominee. And I can’t see “Changeling” making much headway in the race with such a mixed critical reception. Surely, of the seen contenders, “Slumdog Millionaire” is ahead of all three. What I really learn from this is that Academy members clearly need to see more movies.

    More helpful to me is this tidbit Hammond offers on the Best Foreign Language Film race:

    From what we’ve been told only Germany, Japan and Russia have made any significant impact, with Italy’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, “Gomorra,” getting predictions that it will be one of the final five, despite mixed response from some who frowned on its generous amount of violence. And the Portuguese film “Our Beloved Month of August” was apparently so poorly received that some members were trying to leave before they could “officially” exit and still receive credit for seeing it.

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