Oscar 2008: Cate Blanchett, Foreign-Language Films
Joe Dziemianowicz in the New York Daily News:
"Who says it’s never as good as the first time! Cate Blanchett, up for leading actress for playing QE1 in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, was up for the same award for the same role in 1998’s Elizabeth. She joins an elite club that includes Al Pacino — he was nominated twice playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather and the first sequel."
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Others who earned two Oscar nods for the same role: Bing Crosby as Father O’Malley in Going My Way (1944, he won) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945); Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986, he won); and Peter O’Toole as Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968).
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In the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday on the best foreign language film category:
"The shortlist wasn’t the first source of controversy for the committee, which has long been accused of having arbitrary rules. Foreign-language films aren’t submitted for Oscar consideration by their filmmakers or studios but by countries, opening the process to politics and cronyism. ‘Each country does it differently,’ said Picturehouse President Bob Berney, a longtime critic of the nomination process. (Picturehouse’s film Mongol made the list, whereas La Vie en Rose, which the studio also distributed, was overlooked by France in favor of Persepolis, which the committee proceeded to overlook.)
"’In France there are only six or eight people on the (submission) committee, whereas in Spain, 1,000 people vote,’ Berney said, ‘which only adds to the ambiguous nature of this process. And the fact that a country can nominate only one is very tough.’"
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Unfortunately, Hornaday doesn’t take to task the absurd idea that the foreign-language film category has become obsolete. After all, how many non-English-language films have been nominated for the best film Oscar in the last 80 years? The answer is 8, one of which, Letters from Iwo Jima, is an American production directed by Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood. Borders may (or may not) be more porous today, but tribalism is still the law of just about every land.
That said, Hornaday’s piece does offer a couple of interesting quotes. For instance, Mark Johnson, chairman of the Academy’s nominating committee for the foreign-language film Oscar, says that committee members have considered a "wild-card" approach in which the winners of the "four or five of the most important film festivals" would be automatically nominated. Just a different way of keeping the foreign-film selection equally unrepresentative of the Academy membership.
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Sound mixer Kevin O’Connell in Newsday:
"I was at the Academy, in my underwear, talking to Nicolas Cage. He was showing me the nominations list, but when I looked at it, it disappeared. I always remember sleepless nights, but I never had that weird anxiety."
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O’Connell is the most nominated individual to have never won an Oscar, having lost the statuette 19 times in the past. He’s up for one again this year, for Transformers.
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And make sure to check out the Movie City News Oscar nominations sidebar
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Tags: 2008 Oscar, Academy Awards, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Film Awards, Foreign Language Film Category, Letters from Iwo Jima, Transformers
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