So... I've finally put up the Oscar Foreign Film Submission / Prediction Pages. My apologies that I'm so late this year. Usually I'm the go-to site for those wondering what Japan, Estonia, Tanzania, Japan or Canada (among 60+ others) might submit. I've been referenced in newspapers as far away as Egypt. But, curses!, I fell so far behind this year that I can only offer up this pathetic babel'ing apology:
je suis désolé, ana asif, lo siento, Я сожалею, prepac, Förlåt mig, desculpa, 我抱歉, ich bin traurig, przepraszam, mijn verontschuldigingen, ขอโทษ, Özür dilerim, promin, žao mi je, scusa...so che questa pagina è ritardata!
What I'm doing this year is frantically adding the official titles as they're announced with info on the films with the help of valuable film experience readers who send me tips from all over the world (you are thanked on the pages)
First round of official entries coming atcha from: Page 1: Austria to Finland
Page 2: France to Mexico
Page 3: The Netherlands through Singapore (their 'getai' musical 881 pictured, left) all the way to Venezuela
Lots more to come. Love this part. (Make your international predictions known in the comments) Now, if someone would only send me all these films...
Posts
79 comments:
thanks for keeping up on this what you do.
the foreign film oscar is a hard one to stay on top of, with bleeps of news stories here and there.
On the A-F page, your link at the bottom for F-N goes to the similar 2006 page. Other than that, excellent work as always.
fixed
if you enjoy following this every year, spread the word, link up, etcetera. it's a massive amount of work. want the maximum amount of people to see & enjoy
Yay! You're back into the Foreign Language race!!
Japan's submission is very intriguing, I must say. And very happy to see 4m3w2d is Romania's. Man, I want to see it!
Too early for me to make any predictions, I haven't seen enough of these yet! I can't believe I missed Persepolis, it barely registered on the cinema radar in Belgium, if you sneezed you missed the few showings there were! :(
Anyhow, I'm more interested in Spanish cinema... the selection will be made on the 27th, but their preselection is:
"El orfanato" (The Orphanage, saw the trailer this summer... v. scary/10 by Juan Antonio Bayona; "Luz de Domingo" (Sunday's Light) by José Luis Garci,
and "Las trece rosas" (13 Roses, set at the end of the Civil War, looking forward to this, have enjoyed watching Pilar Lopez de Ayala in other roles) by Emilio Martínez
None of them have hit the movie theatres in Spain yet... will have to wait till I go home at Christmas to see them (and hope they'll still be playing!)
here's the link... if you need help with the SPanish would be happy to oblige:
http://espanol.entertainment.yahoo.com/14092007/2/entretenimiento-espa-preselecciona-tres-pel-culas-competir-oscar.html
my guess is that Brazil will not choose any of the films on the list you presented but "Antonia" by director Tata Amaral. It opened this weekend in the US.
~ Felippe
Nat,
The only one I can comment on is my country's submission (Canada:Days of Darkness). It could make a run. It's a companion piece to BFFOscar winning "Barbarian Invasions", but it's not a sequel in the traditional sense, which could help. It's not as good as Barbarian Invasions but in many ways its more oscar-y. It's more attention grabbing. It also stars Diane Kruger (who is somewhat known by anglophones) and Rufus Wainwright (who is a God Among Men)
Looking it over, I'll take Taiwan (post-Crashtastrophy Ang Lee guilt: it's like a smutier Brokeback, only with women), Romania (saw it at TIFF. Holy Shite that it was good), Mexico (whatever they choose will have momentum), Canada (Oh Canada! De terre de nos aueix!), and Ireland (as a random hunch)
your predix are great... persepolis and 4 months should definitely be in there, and i'm expecting a lot from ang lee. but watch out for "the band's visit" from... israel i think? or "the counterfeiters" from.... austria i think. haha
Question: How often do both the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion go to films not in the english language?
I must admit that I'm intrigued by Norway's submission "Gone With the Woman" based on that poster alone...what balls they have in imitating the iconic "GWTW" poster. I kinda want to see it based on that alone.
JD, I would imagine quite frequently.
Nat, well done! I love the foreign stuff you do.
I don't think Australia is going to have a submission this year. Two aussie flicks The Home Song Stories (with Joan Chen) and Lucky Miles were in foreign language and english, but I don't think they were in the foreign language enough to qualify.
I'd be predicting Days of Darkness. They nominated the previous two films in Arcand's trilogy. Still not sure if France's Perselopis risk will pay off.
A post of mine at Awards Daily Forums:
"Big fucking twist in Brazil: Early front-runner The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (a beautiful and touching coming of age tale in a Jewish community) may get out of the race because of the incredible word of mouth of "Tropa de Elite", first fiction from the director of Bus 174.
Tropa de Elite's rough cut has been put on internet and it became an instant hit. The movie is sold on the streets, lots of people are seeing even before the official release - you can talk about the movie with everybody, from the cab driver to your boss. There are lots of stories about it on TV, newspapers, magazines, blogs. People are mad to see the movie, and the ones who have have seen it, want to see it again, when it opens.
The movie is supposed to be a new City of God from the point of view of the police. I haven't seen it, but people say it is violent, and it has the same style of Meirelles' movie. Oscar nominated Daniel Rezende is the editor.
Yesterday, it opened the Rio Festival and Harvey Weinstein was in the audience! Anyway, the producers decided to make an one-week release to qualify the movie for the Brazil's submission race. I think that, even if Brazil chooses The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, this movie will get a surprise U.S. release and may get some other nods, specially editing...
Watch out!"
-cal roth
No way Antonia can make the submission. Great movie (I mean great), but huge box-office failure. The Year My Parents Went On Vacation is a beautiful and touching crowdpleaser and it's still the front-runner, but everyone is talking about Tropa de Elite (Elite Troop). It may be considered too violent, but so was City of God and we all have seen what happended.
I forgot to say: Tropa de Elite's screenwriter is Oscar-nominated Braulio Mantovani, from City of God.
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0jeTL9hC3Wg
Tropa de Elite: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861739/
-cal roth
So, that's it: it's between The Year my Parents went on Vacation and Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad/Troop - don't know yet). Cidade dos Homens is goddamn good, in some ways better than City of God (less of a thriller, more human and subtle), but it is a longshot.
-cal roth
I think it might be too early to count Denmark out. The Art of Crying is really quite moving...or at least I thought so. (But I've also been incredibly biased towards Danish cinema ever since I studied there and figured out that the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen will let you watch almost anything you want for free there, so maybe I'm overreacting.)
and I'd bet money that 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days will get nominated.
Antonia was a box office failure but it was turned into a tv series which is now in it's second season. It means people liked it, so it has the crowd pleaser factor with it plus US distribuction. Tropa de Elite is also a strong contender, but my guess is that they'll choose Antonia.
I'd bet on Lust, Caution I think...but there's alwats a No Man's Land to win over the more popular Amelie.
Mexico will choose its entry on Tuesday! It has to be Silent Light vs Under The Same Moon. Even though Carlos Reygadas is the most recognized filmaker in Mexico, Under The Same Moon is supposed to be a crowd-pleaser, and was acquired by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company, bought it for 6 million dollars, making it the best selling spanish-language film in Sundance's history.
I have not seen any of them (will watch silent light at NY), but I only see a nom for Under the Same Moon, Reygadas divides critics too much.
Right now I'm Thinking...
* SPAIN (The Orphanage)
* TAIWAN (Lust, Caution)
* ARGENTINA (XXY)
* ROMANIA (4 Months, 3 Weeks...)
* FRANCE (Persepolis)
strong:
* Turkey, Brazil, Mexico & Denmark
It's still too early to tell, especially without knowing what Argentina, Brazil, China, Italy Mexico and Russia will be sending.....
I'd say the front-runner for the moment is the Czech nominee, "I Served the King of England"...It's a well-received costume period piece (1930s-1950s) by a former Oscar winner, and the Czechs usually do well in this category.
If I had to pick the other four from the list we have so far, I'd say: Austria, Denmark, Israel and Taiwan, although we should keep in mind that some are already calling for Israel's disqualification since the film is approximately 50% in English.
Least likely to get nominated? Hungary's "Taxidermy"!
Take a look at last year's list....What were your favorites? Mine were "American Visa" (Bolivia), "The King & the Clown (Korea) and "The Yacoubian Building" (Egypt), none of which were even nominated!
"It may be considered too violent, but so was City of God and we all have seen what happended."
Yeah, it wasn't nominated when it was submitted for Foreign Language film. It was only nommed a year later after it had been playing in cinemas for a year. If Weinstein was in the audience you can tell he was there mulling over the possibilities.
Great blog! I added you to my blogroll. I'd appreciate it if you'd consider linking back.
Most blogs allow you to enter your blog url in a special field in the comment section. If the blog doesn't have that feature, then you will also need to put my url in the comment.
Predictions:
Persepolis - France, because it's an audacious choice, because AMPAS loves all things French and because it's a good movie that might play well with US audiences too since dubbing of animated films is never a problem for the subtitle-scared audiences
4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) - Romania, because the film is good AND it won the Palme d'Or AND many AMPAS voters might be slightly embarrassed by the fact they left out The Death of Mr Lazarescu two years ago...
Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) - Austria, it's WWII, it's concentration camps, it's very well made, plus AMPAS needs to apologise to Austria for having disqualified Haneke two years ago
Auf der andere Seite (The Edge of Heaven) - Germany, because the country has been on a roll lately (winning last year), because the film is very good and because AMPAS loves to nominate films that have both an urgent message yet are classically epic in scope.
Caramel - Lebanon, because there is always a lighter film in the mix, and this is funny and sweet-natured and from a war-torn country. If this film and Persepolis and Auf der anderen Seite get nominated, it will be a victory for the portrayal of Muslim characters as normal people, something which, seen the current political climate, is long overdue.
"Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) - Austria, it's WWII, it's concentration camps..."
I change my vote, that's winning.
i would say
persepolis (france)
4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (romania)
the edge of heaven (germany)
secret sunshine (south korea)
lust, caution (taiwan)
"Antonia was a box office failure but it was turned into a tv series which is now in it's second season. It means people liked it, so it has the crowd pleaser factor with it plus US distribuction. Tropa de Elite is also a strong contender, but my guess is that they'll choose Antonia."
No, Antonia the movie was completed first, but opened after the TV series first season. It doesn't mean people like it. It means people liked the series. If they have to pick a crowdpleaser, they'll definitely go for The Year Our Parents Went on Vacation.
"It may be considered too violent, but so was City of God and we all have seen what happened."
That was AMPAS' fault. The Brazilian committee submitted City of God. I don't think AMPAS would make the same mistake. Anyway, Weinstein has already has the movie. He came to Brazil to support the movie and show the committee he would campaign hard if Tropa de Elite is chosen.
-cal roth
It was the foreign film branch's fault - not AMPAS. AMPAS at large seemed to support City of God when it was eligible for other categories a year later, giving it directing, writing, editing and cinematography nominations.
The foreign film branch is something like barely 200 people, right? 100? So if they don't like the style of City of God I doubt they're suddenly going to change their minds. It's why the same sort of French/Italian movies always get picked - because the people in the branch are probably older and those who have the time to watch all the submitted films and they know what they like. And it's why The Lives of Others won over Pan's Labyrinth (other than it being a better movie). The numbers who vote there are much smaller and as such can be a little left of centre and not on the.
...or, at least that's my understanding of the foreign film category.
One thing that I don't understand is why nobody is predicting Belén Rueda for The orphanage in the best actress race... A mistery, cause people who saw the film only said fantastic things about her. Maybe she could be the surprise nominee everybody is waiting for?
The Netherlands has won the category twice, with Character and Antonia's Line
you know, your pages are completely necessary and i mean that in a nice sense, babe.
Predictions so far -
*Austria
*Denmark
*France
*Romania
*Taiwan
I'm with abbie on "The Art of Crying", which is totally excellent and could be right up there battling Romania for the win.
Or Bhutan. I mean, who knows?
Turkey has a nomination and a win--Yol
You're right Kamikaze... Anyway, I am not predicting it to make the final five (but it'd be a strong contender), I predict it to the Brazilian submission. They definitely have the guts.
- cal roth
Pete - the Netherlands have actually won three times, also in 1986 for De Aanslag (The Assault).
Found a list over at ION Cinema. Would you consider them an independent resource, or are they ripping you off?
ION Cinema has a list with faults in it. Estonia submitted "The Class" (Klass), a dark story about school violence. I keep my fingers crossed that it will have the same fate as Sedish "Ondskan" (Evil).
Do you think the average to bad reviews at Venice and Toronto sunk Lust, Caution chances?
dzong2
last year, this category had one of the strongest races in many many years.. both The Lives of Others and Pan's Labyrinth ended up in my top 5 of 2006. From the non-nominated film I really liked Volver (Spain), Madeinusa (Peru).
American Visa (Bolivia) was just terrible... and it still was able to get an award at the Mexican oscars (movie is a co-production)... ugh
Pete --Turkey has never won this award... according to my research they've never been nominated (unless I missed something) Yol was nominated for a Golden Globe but not the Oscar.
the Netherlands --my accounting error. that's what I get for copy and paste. they've won 3 times yes.
neel i don't know if people are ripping me off or just doing their own research. if they are culling the info from my site I'd hope they'd throw up a link (i don't own the copyright after all. tis but a list of movies... i just put up a lot more info than other sites do)
But I'm happy that it's easier for people to find the info now than it once was and I'm definitely happy that I've been a prominent part of that rise in awareness over the last several years.
etslee i don't think LUST CAUTION can be counted on OR counted out until it opens to general critics and the public. Even after its "negative" reviews it won the big prize... so whatever. Most movies have more than one peak and more than one valley during their shelf life. We always think we know more than we do once the festivals hit.
It's Been Confirmed ：
Johnny To's Exiled is the official submission of Hong Kong.
Good movie, bad move.
Brazil final list:
"A Grande Familia - O Filme"
"A História das Três Marias"
"Antônia"
"Batismo de Sangue"
"Cidade dos Homens"
"Fabricando Tom Zé"
"Muito Gelo e Dois Dedos D'água"
"O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias"
"O Céu de Suely"
"O Cheiro do Ralo"
"O Dono do Mar"
"Ó, Pai, Ó"
"O Passageiro, Segredos de Adulto"
"Primo Basílio"
"Proibido Proibir"
"Saneamento Básico"
"Tropa de Elite"
"Três Irmãos de Sangue"
Chart:
1 - "O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias"
2 - "Tropa de Elite"
3 - "Cidade dos Homens"
4 - "O Céu de Suely"
5 - "Antônia"
Best movies:
1 - "O Céu de Suely"
2 - "Antônia"
3 - "Cidade dos Homens"
4 - "Proibido Proibir"
5 - "O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias"
(Haven't seen Tropa de Elite).
Final result: Wednesday
-cal roth
MEXICAN RACE
I can't wait to see the next Reygadas. I don't give a fuck if they don't nom him, it'd be enough to make me feel proud about my national academy with GUTS, lol.
But then there's also Under the same Moon (even the name is baity, lol). Standing ovation at Sundance, release by Weinstein/Fox Searchlight, a baity subject (immigration) and America Ferrara on the cast.
I think both would be good choices, but I hope is Reygadas. Other films with possibilities are Bad Habits and Blue Eyelids. My wannabe dark horse? My Mexican Shivah, a hilarious jewish comedy. It could be well received by AMPAS.
We'll know tomorrow. This is one of my fav moments of the awards year.
- - - - - - - - -
IRANIAN RACE
Finalists.
“Crossroads” (directed by Abolhassan Davudi),
“Reward of Silence” (Maziar Miri),
“Somewhere Too Far” (Khosro Masumi),
“Mainline” (Rakhshan Bani-Etemad/Mohsen Abdolvahhab),
“It’s Winter” (Rafi Pitts),
“Good Night Commander” (Ensieh Shah-Hosseini),
“M for Mother” (Rasul Molaqolipur),
“When Everybody Was Asleep” (Fereidun Hassanpur).
I'd predict Lust Caution to get in at this stage. Ang Lee has gotten three foreign language film nominations already in his life, and it's not like it's the Academy at large voting who could have the "we rewarded him, let's move on" idea. Plus, stuff like Betty Blue have gotten onto the list despite harsh reviews and plenty of sex.
On the matter of ION, if you go to Movie City News, every time an article came out about a country selecting a certain film MCN would post the link to it, so it would be pretty easy to compile a list independently if they really wanted to. But who knows? Nat's is still better.
The Estonian film is indeed Klass (The Class). It's very good (my review coming soon) and seen a US audience's familiarity with the subject AND some European touches in execution (no pun intended; Elephant this is not) it could mean that the voters are persuaded to give it one of the five slots. As pointed out, Ondskan (Evil) got a slot a couple of years ago as well.
Thanks, as always.
Most anticipated:
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Silent Light
Secret Sunshine
The Band's Visit
I've seen Lust, Caution. It's a contender but not guaranteed.
The trailer for Under The Same Moon makes it look cheesy and banal.
Roy Andersson's
You, The Living (Du levande)
is the official Swedish submission!
This can go both ways. I suspect that the older academy members can relate to the matter, But the whole idea is very deep. Though I find it hard to believe, that this movie will sunk into the majority. I feel Finland and espcially Norway have better chances this year to get the nordic slot.
Where can I find the complete lists of national submissions in the Foreign Language category for the years 1985 and earlier? Wikipedia has the more recent lists but nothing for the earlier years? Thanks.
well, isn't persepolis running under the iranian flag ?(it was considered as an iranian film at the cannes film festival i think)
Any idea if any of the official contenders are or soon will be on DVD? I know some years things were already available before they secured nominations (such as Lagaan).
Persepolis is considered French for the Oscars. this is always a difficult part of film / oscar culture now that so many films are international co-productions and Oscar rules are more old school --geared toward separate national cinemas
pete if i knew where to find the earlier lists i would have pages up for them myself
eddie --whatever i can find i put up. but i'm still in research mode on all of these and there are more announcing each day.
more info to come
Iran hates Persepolis to the extent that is has complained at several festivals that programmed it and quite a few (though not Cannes) have actually withdrawn it from their line-up after they received the complaint. The film is really good, but it is true that there is a "Western" slant to things in the film. Just something to keep in mind when watching it.
Great the info is coming in by a minute!!!!
India has selected Eklavya – The Royal Guard as it's official entry to the best foreign-language film category of the Oscars!
Hi...Yah, when I was living in Bangkok, the Iranian Embassy launched an official protest and forced "Persepolis" to be removed from the Bangkok International Film Festival. The directors are Iranian exiles, I believe, and Iran does not consider the film to be from there. They became the 40th country to announce, when they chose melodrama "M for Mother" today.
I put the Oscar submissions back to 1970 up on wikipedia last month. I don't have anything before that. It's interesting to see what famous films were snubbed from decades ago!
dzong
Highly anticipated battle epic, "The Warlords", officially withdrawn from competition! The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), which has the final say on the selection, said it was determined that they won't let this chance go by. There will certainly be a film selected to compete for the award.
Yan Yunfei, film reporter with the Shanghai Morning Post, listed "The Knot" and "A Railway in the Cloud" as possibles.
"The Knot", directed by Yin Li and starring Chen Kun, Vivian Hsu and Isabella Leong, is a sweeping romantic epic spanning the years since the 1940s and set across China.
"A Railway in the Cloud", directed by Feng Xiaoning, tells the story of an attempt to build a railway on the frozen Qinghai-TibetPlateau in the 1950s.
"The Assembly", the latest film by bankable director Feng Xiaogang whose works include "The Banquet" and "A World Without Thieves", has been ruled out because it will fail to meet the entry deadline.
Director Peter Chan's "The Warlords", starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, had been announced as a possible candidate for best foreign language film, but was withdrawn after opposition from U.S. investor Morgan Chan Films.
The U.S. backers wanted the film to hit American theaters early next year, allowing it to qualify in the general categories for the 2009 Oscars. They feel it would lose award possibilities if it was submitted for a single foreign language nomination.
Well, there aren't any rules anymore about foreign language films being in the language of the submitting country, so Persepolis - a french film, but spoken in french and persian specifically - can still qualify where it wouldn't have just two years ago (Hidden/Cache springs to mind in that regard).
Oh, but also, Princess Mononoke was submitted by Japan in the year it was released and, well, it obviously didn't get the nod. I wonder if Spirited Away would have though.
lots of updates last night
Or Water, right?
And Princess Mononoke was submitted for the '97 Oscars, in it's original Japanese. It would still take almost two years for the dubbed version to premiere.
Any ideas how we can go about getting those earlier lists of candidate films? I think they might reveal unnominated classics and masterpieces and well-known directors ignored.
Well, several succesful films have been submitted and ignored. City of God was rejected by the Foreign branch and the next year it was nommed for four Oscars, including direction.
Ironically, should the film had been chosen in 2002, it would've been inelegible for 2003.
And then there's the pathetic Volver affair last year!
Italy has selected a few hours ago Giuseppe Tornatore's "The Unknown" (La sconosciuta)
As I predicted, Brazil picks The Year Our Parents Went on Vacation.
-cal roth
Switzerland chooses Late Bloomers as Oscar contender
To date, Late Bloomers is the most successful film in Switzerland since 1978 with just over 600,000 admissions.
South Korea's Secret Sunshine is VERY great movie.
dzong
Did you post just the 5 finalists on wikipedia or the full lists of contenders?
i am updating as they come in so refresh your screen if you're looking for new stuff
ITALY's entry: The Unknown.
Pete,
I posted all the Foreign Film submissions back to the 1970 Oscars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submissions_for_the_42nd_Academy_Award_for_Best_Foreign_Language_Film
Somebody asked about "Yol" before...Turkey DID NOT send it to the Oscars, but Switzerland sent it as their submission in 1982 but it did not get nominated.
hey dzong 2
where did you get the lists? From AMPAS itself? Outstanding work! Any chance for the earlier years?
NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7th-time Oscar nominated Mexico will submit:
LUZ SILENCIOSA
(Silent Light)
Directed by: Carlos Reygadas (Japan, Battle in Heaven)
Written by: Carlos Reygadas
Runtime: 125 min.
Awards received: Won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival (tied with France's Persepolis) and nominated to the Golden Palm.
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE ACADEMY FOREIGN AFFICHES
I notice that there are several posters in your affiches section but they do not appear in the national charts. When will the two correspond exactly?
Lucia Puenzo's $1.2m Cannes Critics Week prizewinning XXY is Argentinian foreign-language Oscar nomination.
Two days before the deadline, China's Film Bureau still hasn't made a decision although love story The Knot has emerged as a front-runner.
An India court has found the country's Oscar entry "prima facie biased" as a filmmaker challenged its selection, according to the Hindustan Times Sunday.
The Bombay high court has ordered India's film federation to respond within 10 days to the petition filed by Bhavna Talwar, whose film Dharm lost to film Eklavya in the Oscar selection.
Talwar and producer WSG Pictures allege that selection committee director Sudhir Mishra and members Jagdish Sharma and Ranjit Bahadur were close to Eklavya filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
They said Bahadur was the editor of a promo for the Oscar entry. The court allowed Sharma and Bahadur to file affidavits in reply.
Great site!
I predict Italy's 'La Sconosciuta' directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore will win :)
Here's the trailer for ya'll that haven't seen it:
http://www.mymovies.it/trailer/?id=43722
Ciao ciao!
im a brazilian, I've seen Tropa de Elite, and what I can tell you guys is that the movie is to the country as chuck norris was to the internet. (if you know what I mean ¬¬) =P
Its a great movie, that shows the truth about the corrupt militar police and the elite troop (B.O.P.E.). In my opinion, its better than city of god
The leading role actor Wagner Moura (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0609944/) does a great job
Hi everyone. I've just saw XXY, the Argentinian foreign-language Oscar submission, and it's really really very good.
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