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Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Foreign Language Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Baaria, Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
An autobiographical tale set in the director’s Sicilian hometown

Forever Enthralled, Chen Kaige (China)
Biopic chronicling the life of Mei Lanfang, China’s greatest opera star.

I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan (Canada)
A young gay man has some serious issues with his mother.

A Prophet, Jacques Audiard (France)
Prison drama in which a young hood learns what it takes to reach the top of that small (and nasty) world.

The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke (Germany)
As a prelude to both World War I and World War II, a German village unexpectedly becomes the setting of numerous acts of cruelty.

Quality (much like fairness) is in the brain of the judge. (Of course, if we’re lucky enough to have a judge [...]

Oscar 2010: Best Foreign Language Film Longlist

Sixty-five countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards®, Academy President Tom Sherak announced today. The 2009 submissions are:
Albania, “Alive!,” Artan Minarolli, director;
Argentina, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Juan Jose Campanella, director;
Armenia, “Autumn of the Magician,” Rouben Kevorkov and Vaheh Kevorkov, directors;
Australia, “Samson & Delilah,” Warwick Thornton, director;
Austria, “For a Moment Freedom,” Arash T. Riahi, director;
Bangladesh, “Beyond the Circle,” Golam Rabbany Biplob, director;
Belgium, “The Misfortunates,” Felix van Groeningen, director;
Bolivia, “Zona Sur,” Juan Carlos Valdivia, director;
Bosnia [...]

Oscar 2010: Best Foreign Language Film, Short Film Deadline

The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (top); I Killed My Mother by Xavier Donlan (middle); Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (bottom)

The deadline to submit entries in the Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film and Foreign Language Film categories to be considered for the 82nd Academy Awards: Thursday, October 1.
Complete entries must arrive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by 5 p.m. PT that day.
As per the Academy’s press release, "in the short film categories, filmmakers must submit an entry form, one film print or copy in an approved digital format, and all other required materials by the deadline.
"In the Foreign Language Film category, filmmakers must submit entry forms, [...]

Oscar 2010: Ten Best Picture Nominees

Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It with You, the Best Picture winner of 1938. There were 10 nominees that year, among them The Adventures of Robin Hood, Four Daughters, Jezebel, The Citadel, and Angels with Dirty Faces.

In terms of rules and regulations, this is likely the biggest Oscar news since the mid-1940s:
The 2010 Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 7, 2010, will have no less than 10 feature films vying in the Best Picture category. The last time more than five films competed for the Oscars was in 1943, the year Casablanca won for best picture. (Among the losers were The Song of Bernadette, The Human Comedy, [...]

Oscar 2009: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

Wide acclaim and a handful of top European Film Awards didn’t help Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah land a spot in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ list of best foreign-language film semi-finalists.
And in case you’re looking for Let the Right One In among the nine films still in the running, you won’t find it there. Although the Swedish vampire drama was chosen the best foreign-language film of the year by numerous US-based critics’ groups, it was ineligible for the Oscars simply because each country can submit only one film per year: Sweden’s choice for 2008 was Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments.
The nine semi-finalists — out of 65 (accepted) foreign-language film submissions — are (listed in [...]

Foreign Language Film Symposium 2008

Foreign Language Film Academy Award Symposium 2008: Part I

Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrzej Wajda

Sergei Bodrov, Nikita Mikhalkov

Joseph Cedar, Stefan Ruzowitzky
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Photos: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Foreign Language Film Academy Award Symposium 2008 Photos

Stefan Ruzowitzky, Joseph Cedar, Sergei Bodrov, and Academy Governor Mark Johnson

The 2010 Academy Awards‘ Foreign Language Film Symposium was held yesterday, February 23, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
All five directors of this year’s nominated films were present: Joseph Cedar (Beaufort, Israel); Nikita Mikhalkov (12, Russia); Andrzej Wajda (Katyn, Poland); Sergei Bodrov (Mongol, Kazakhstan); and Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters, Austria).
Academy president Bruce Davis introduced the symposium, which was moderated by the Academy’s Chair of the Foreign Language Film Committee Mark Johnson.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Photos: Todd Wawrychuk / Darren Decker (directors’ solo photos) / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Andrzej Wajda

Nikita Mikhalkov

Joseph Cedar

Oscar 2008: Foreign Language Film Nominees Symposium

Katyn (top); The Counterfeiters (middle); Mongol (bottom)

The filmmakers of this year’s Academy Award-nominated foreign-language films will take part — "subject to availability" — in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium on Saturday, February 23, at 10 a.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. [2008 Foreign Language Film Academy Award Symposium Photos.]
The event, which includes clips from the nominated films and a Q&A session with audience members, will be moderated by Oscar-winning producer and Foreign Language Executive Committee Chair Mark Johnson.
The 2007 Foreign Language Film nominees are:

Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director
Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director
[...]

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."
***
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 [...]

Oscar 2008: Nine Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

Oscar 2008: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists
The semi-finalist films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Nazis have a Jewish prisoner create fake American and British currency in order to weaken their enemies’ economies

Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger, director
In 1970, during the height of the military dictatorship in Brazil, a boy is left alone in São Paulo’s Jewish quarter after his parents "go on vacation"

Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director
A civil servant finds solace from his drab existence by coming up with all types of Walter Mitty-like fantasies

Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director
Israeli platoon leaves the last [...]

Oscar 2008: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

The Unknown by Giuseppe Tornatore (top); The Counterfeiters by Stefan Ruzowitzky (bottom)

When I stated in my Oscar 2008 predictions that the Academy’s foreign-language film shortlist is the most difficult to predict, I wasn’t kidding.
Nowhere to be found in the list of nine foreign-language film semi-finalists are:

Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days — last year’s Cannes Film Festival winner and considered by numerous U.S. critics one of the best films of 2007;
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s much-ballyhooed and New York Film Critics Circle winner Persepolis, which may still get a best animated feature nod;
and Juan Antonio Bayona’s box-office hit and multiple-Goya nominee The Orphanage.

Additionally, there was a major surprise among those that [...]

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