In Contention

Tag: Persepolis

  • ‘4 Months’ takes BBC award

    The BBC Four World Cinema Award is an endearingly unassuming, low-fi ceremony — so unassuming and low-fi, in fact, I’d forgotten it took place until I happened upon the TV broadcast earlier this evening. (It seems nesting on a Saturday night has the odd advantage.)

    It’s a simple enough prize. UK critics elect a shortlist of the five outstanding foreign-language releases of the year, upon which a jury of industry figures convenes to choose to best of them. The award is now in its sixth year: previous winners include “Belleville Rendezvous,” “The Return,” “Downfall,” “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” This year’s list, heavy on 2007 films that only received a UK release last year, went as follows:

    “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (WINNER)
    “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
    “Gomorrah”
    “The Orphanage”
    “Persepolis”

    Jury head John Hurt said the verdict was unanimous. Not a very surprising, or very arguable, result — though with a list of that calibre, it’s hard to go wrong. (Only “The Orphanage,” I think, is a little out of its depth here.) By the way, can you spot what the five shortlisted films have in common? Yep, all were either snubbed or ineligible for the foreign-language Oscar. Make of that what you will.

    Meanwhile, Werner Herzog picked up a lifetime achievement award and gave one of the most eloquent speeches I’ve heard all season. I know he doesn’t really have a shot in hell, but I’d sure love to see him on the Oscar stage. (EDIT: If you’re interested, you can watch the ceremony here.)

  • BAFTA predictions

    The BAFTA nominations drop tomorrow, and while I hardly covered myself in glory with my foreign film Oscar forecast yesterday, I’m going to wade into the murky waters of prediction once more.

    On the one hand, it’s a fool’s errand trying to predict the BAFTA nods, as they can frequently be the most perverse and contrarian awards voters of the lot. On the other, they make the task a little easier for us pundits by releasing 15-strong longlists in each category ahead of the voting.

    As I wrote back in November, the BAFTAs can be inconsistently parochial in their voting, frequently handing multiple nods to middlebrow homegrown product, while simultaneously sidelining the most acclaimed British films of the year. A look at this year’s longlists confirms that trend, as relatively mediocre Brit flicks like “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,” “Mamma Mia!” and “The Duchess” all received multiple mentions, while critical darlings “Hunger” and “Happy-Go-Lucky” landed in a paltry three categories each — Best Film not among them.

    The BAFTA voters’ provincialism is most shamefully evident in the Best Supporting Actress longlist, which features such bizarre inclusions as Judi Dench for “Quantum of Solace” and Rebecca Hall for her arm-candy role in “Frost/Nixon.” As for the Best Adapted Screenplay citation for “Mamma Mia!,” well, the less said the better. Of course, it’s a mistake to read too much into these lists. The idle frequency with which certain titles pop up — “Frost/Nixon” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” lead with 14 mentions each, but more surprisingly, a lightweight contender like “Burn After Reading” managed a staggering 11 — suggests the voters weren’t thinking too hard either.

    Which films will fare best tomorrow is another matter — it’s not uncommon for a film to feature strongly in the longlists only to go MIA on nomination morning. Below the cut are my best guesses, together with some thoughts on the top categories.

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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.

  • Chalk one up for ‘WALL-E’

    The Academy has revealed the 14-strong shortlist of films competing in the Best Animated Feature category, and, well, it doesn’t make for very inspiring reading. What’s most significant about the news is that it means the nominees will, as usual, be limited to three films; to accommodate five, more than 15 shortlisted titles are required. That has only happened once before, in 2002. Here’s the list:

    “Bolt”; “Delgo”; “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”; “Dragon Hunters”; “Fly Me to the Moon”; “Igor”; “Kung Fu Panda”; “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”; “$9.99”; “The Sky Crawlers”; “Sword of the Stranger”; “The Tale of Despereaux”; “WALL-E”; “Waltz With Bashir”

    It’s a nail-biting race. “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” may appear to be the locked-in frontrunner, but “Bolt” has Academy veteran Miley Cyrus powering its chances, and watch out for the lovely Australian stop-motion work “$9.99,” which is creeping up on the outside lane, and could take it all…

    Okay, okay, forgive me for trying to make it sound a little more exciting. (I am pleased to see “$9.99” in there, though.) I think we can safely eliminate most of the titles on the list from consideration — even if the voters have in the past nominated the odd head-scratching dud. (“Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” anyone?) Anyway, We all know “WALL-E” is winning this by a country mile, so the only thing left to ponder is which two films it will beat.

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  • What was the debut of the year?

    Chances are it’s not a prize that studios are going to mount furious campaigns for, but the Guardian First Film Award has the classiest slate of nominees I’ve seen all year. Not so much an award as a nice little citation in their year-end Film&Music edition, their critics have drawn up a list of the ten best directorial debuts from the last 12 months, and have invited their readers to vote for the winner.

    They’re going by the UK release schedule, which is why you have 2007 fare like “Persepolis” rubbing up against more recent releases on the list. (And why “Waltz With Bashir” or “Synecdoche, New York,” surely the year’s most discussed freshman effort, aren’t on it.)

    So the ten are: “Caramel” (Nadine Labaki); “Control” (Anton Corbijn); “Eden Lake”  (James Watkins); “In Bruges” (Martin McDonagh); “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Philippe Claudel); “The Orphanage” (Juan Antonio Bayona); “Persepolis” (Vincent Parannaud and Marjane Satrapi); “Shotgun Stories” (Jeff Nichols); “Unrelated” (Joanna Hogg); “Water Lilies” (Céline Sclamma).

    Not much American content there, but hey, that’s the kind of year it’s been. I haven’t yet seen “Eden Lake” or “Unrelated,” I’m afraid to say, but besides that fact, I can’t argue too much with any of these inclusions. (Clearly I’m getting too sanguine.) What would you vote for? What have they left out?

    I’m still trying to break a three-way tie in my head between “Control,” “Persepolis” and “I’ve Loved You So Long,” which you may remember I kind of liked. (I’m just happy for an excuse to use the “Control” poster as illustration — seriously, has there been a better one in the last couple of years?) Check out all the details, and vote if you’re so inclined, here.

  • Israel picks the animated ‘Waltz’ for its foreign Oscar contender

    A website called cinemascope is reporting that Israel has chosen Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir” to represent the country in the foreign film Oscar race.  Very wise.  Nice to see animated films getting this kind of an awards push, what with “Persepolis” repping France last year.  Let’s just hope “Waltz” doesn’t get the shaft like “Persepolis” and “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” last year from a majorly disfunctional branch of the Academy.

    Guy, by the way, has been doing a nice job of wrangling the foreign film news lately, so keep it hear as updates keep coming.

  • France submits ‘Class’ over ‘So Long’ for foreign Oscar

    François Bégaudeau in The ClassOne big question mark floating around since the foreign language film submissions started trickling in has been which film France would submit, the Cannes sensation (and Palm d’Or winner) “The Class” or Philippe Claudel’s “I’ve Loved You So Long.”

    Anchored by a critically acclaimed performance from Kristin Scott Thomas, Claudel’s film is one of the most buzzed films to come out of Telluride and Toronto.  “Best film of the year” has been a typical verdict.

    Then again, it’s hard to argue with Laurent Canet’s Palm d’Or winner, which beat out some thick competition on the Croisette this year.

    Well today we get an answer.  France will be submitting “The Class” as their foreign language film contender in this year’s Oscar race.  The result is similar to last year’s debate when the country had a critical darling and a film packing a performance punch to work with in “Persepolis” and “La Vie en Rose” respeticvely.  The former ended up making the trip before being unceremoniously cut from the competition during the early stages.