In Contention

Tag: I Killed My Mother

  • Waiting on Oscar’s foreign language shortlist

    Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim in A ProphetLast Saturday, the Academy concluded four months of screenings of the 65 films in contention for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film award. Today, that tall pile of titles will be culled to a shortlist of just nine contenders, from which the eventual five nominees will be chosen.

    Making predictions here is a pretty thankless task, given the regularity with which this branch of the Academy slights seemingly sure-fire nominees in favour of less visible, and less acclaimed, fare. Indeed, a high-profile snub, with ensuing media outcry, has virtually become an annual Oscar tradition.

    The furore over the omission of Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” two years ago even prompted a change in the voting system – to safeguard against such controversies, a smaller executive committee was appointed to add three titles to the six elected by the branch voters.

    It didn’t work: when last year’s critical darling “Gomorrah” failed to impress even the new committee, the Academy was raked over the coals once more. The bottom line, then, is that even the mightiest title can’t be called a shoo-in in this race.

    (More analysis, and shortlist predictions, after the cut.)

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  • Foreign film news and notes — 40 films so far

    Anne Dorval in I Killed my MotherANOTHER 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.

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  • Teen director rules Cannes Directors’ Fortnight

    Xavier DolanIt’s news like this that reminds me to haul ass and finish another screenplay. 19 year-old Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan has swept three of the four feature-category Directors’ Fortnight prizes on offer at Cannes. Dolan landed the Art Cinema Award, the Regards Jeunes Prize and the SACD Award for his debut feature “I Killed My Mother.”

    The film, which Dolan wrote, directed, produced and stars in, is a semi-autobiographical portrait of the dysfunctional  relationship between a gay 16 year-old and his single mother, and has attracted substantial buzz since bowing on the Croisette. Screen Daily raves:

    A stunning, semi-autobiographical tour de force from writer/director/producer/performer Xavier Dolan, it is a film with the sting of shrewdly observed truth … I Killed My Mother succeeds so well because it reflects a truth about human relationships that any viewer can recognise. The bond between Hubert and Chantale may be more extreme and exaggerated than most but in the pettiness, manipulations, reconciliations and heartache it expertly conveys the way we all have the ability to hurt the ones we love the most.

    It’s at points like this that I prefer not to think about what I was doing when I was 19. Okay, so I was a university sophomore like a million other normal folks, so no shame in that, but it’s sobering all the same. Congratulations to Dolan — I look forward to checking out his film.

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