Oscar-Winning Foreign Language Films Poster Exhibition
Next January, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be presenting "From Amarcord to Z: Posters from Fifty Years of Foreign Language Film Award Winners." The exhibition will open to the public in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery on January 19, 2007. Admission is free.
The art work is generally superb, and so are some of the films that have won the best foreign language film Academy Award in the last 50 years. Actually, one could say 60 years, for the very first best foreign language film Oscar was handed out to Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine, from Italy, in 1947.
In the ten years that followed, however, Oscars for non-English-language films remained a special — and not necessarily yearly — award. In 1956, Federico Fellini’s La Strada, also from Italy, became the first film honored in the newly created annual foreign language film category.
Among the other foreign language film Oscar winners (in the last 60 years) are Monsieur Vincent (1948), The Bicycle Thief (1949), Rashomon (1951), Forbidden Games (1952), Mon Oncle (1958), Black Orpheus (1959), The Virgin Spring (1960), 8 1/2 (1963), A Man and a Woman (1966), and Z (1969).
Also, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), The Garden of Finzi Continis (1971), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), Day for Night (1973), Amarcord (1974), Dersu Uzala (1975), The Tin Drum (1979), Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears (1980), Mephisto (1982), The Official Story (1985), Babette’s Feast (1987), Pelle the Conqueror (1988), and Cinema Paradiso (1989).
And more recently, Journey of Hope (1990), Indochine (1992), Antonia’s Line (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1998), All About My Mother (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Nowhere in Africa (2002), The Barbarian Invasions (2003), The Sea Inside (2004), and Tsotsi (2005).
As per the Academy’s press release, all posters are from the collection of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, and most of them are from the film’s release in its country of origin.
Here’s hoping that the Academy will do something special at the 2007 Oscar ceremony to celebrate the motion pictures that have been nominated in the best foreign language film category. They may get little media attention in the United States, but more often than not those films are superior to the ones listed in the wildly more popular best film category.
Viewing hours for From "Amarcord to Z: Posters from Fifty Years of Foreign Language Film Award Winners" are Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, noon to 6 p.m. The exhibition will run through April 15. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information, please call (310) 247-3600.
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Tags: Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Amarcord, Black Orpheus, Classic Movies, Foreign Language Films, Los Angeles Screenings, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Z
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