Poster Exhibition of Oscar-Winning Foreign Language Films
by Andre Soares
The art work is generally superb, and so are some of the films that won the Best Foreign Language Academy Award in the last 50 years. Actually, one could say 60 years, for the first Foreign Language Film win took place in 1947. (For the next ten years, however, Oscars for non-English-language films remained a special — and not necessarily yearly — award.)
In any case, 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 exhibit will open to the public in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery on January 19, 2007. Admission is free.
Here’s hoping that the Academy will do something special during 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.
Note: As per the press release below, the Best Foreign Language Film category was created to "honor films made outside the United States." They should have added "foreign-language" before the word "films."
Press Release:
Beverly Hills, CA — It was 50 years ago that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established a category to annually honor films made outside of the United States. To celebrate this anniversary, the Academy will present an exhibition of posters from many of the films that have won its Foreign Language Film award. "From Amarcord to Z: Posters from Fifty Years of Foreign Language Film Award Winners" will open to the public in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery on January 19, 2007. Admission is free.
In 1956, La Strada, from Italy, was the first film honored in the Foreign Language Film category, and the most recent winner, Tsotsi, from South Africa, was the 50th honoree. Over the course of the past five decades, 21 countries have had their films recognized with Oscar® statuettes. In most cases, the poster displayed will be from the film’s release in its country of origin. All of the works on display will be from the collection of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library.
The exhibition also will include posters from some of the films that received Oscar statuettes prior to the establishment of the annual category. These were special awards voted by the Academy’s Board of Governors and not necessarily given every year. In 1947, Shoe-Shine, from Italy, was the first film so honored when the Board acknowledged that "the high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity."
A wide range of styles will be represented in the works displayed, from the haunting photographic imagery of the Mephisto poster (1981, Hungary) to the lighthearted, spare design for Mon Oncle (1958, France). The exhibition’s namesake posters both use photography; in the case of Amarcord, there are several images that preview the fantastical world of the film’s director, Federico Fellini, while Z uses a single image to convey the drama that will unfold under Costa-Gavras’s direction. Among the many posters with unique painterly images are those for Black Orpheus (1959, France) and Dersu Uzala (1975, U.S.S.R.).
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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