Gomorrah: Best Foreign Language Film Oscar absentee. Based on Roberto Saviano’s book about the Camorra, Italy’s Naples-centered crime syndicate, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah has been one of the best-received releases of 2008. Two entities, however, have been left unmoved by the film’s acclaim: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose Best Foreign Language Film voters & committees failed to include Gomorrah among the nine semifinalists in contention for the 2009 Oscar, and the Camorra itself, which has threatened to eliminate author/co-screenwriter Saviano.
A record 67 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards, Academy President Sid Ganis announced today.
Jordan is the only first-timer this year. It submitted Amin Matalqa’s Captain Abu Raed, which stars veteran Nadim Sawalha as an airport janitor mistaken for a pilot by his neighborhood’s poor children. The janitor then sets out to tell fantastic stories about the world out there so as to help the children escape from their drab existence. Earlier this year, Captain Abu Raed nabbed the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and the best director award at the Seattle Film Festival.
Among other potential Oscar 2009 contenders in the best foreign language film category are:
- Laurent Cantet’s The Class, set in one of Paris’ poor, multiethnic neighborhoods, and this year’s Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival
- Uli Edel’s The Baader Meinhof Complex, about the two notorious Red Army Faction terrorists (played by Moritz Bleibtreu and Martina Gedeck)
- Matteo Garrone’s widely praised Gomorra, winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, which tells the story of one of Italy’s modern-day crime families
- Bruno Barreto’s Last Stop 174, a dramatization of a bus highjacking that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 2000
- Majid Majidi’s The Song of Sparrows, which won Reza Najie the best actor Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a morality tale about the fall and rise of a destitute farmer after he leaves the countryside for Teheran
Before the actual voting takes place – and there’s been one major procedural change this year – watch for half a dozen or more films to be disqualified as a result of some technicality or other.
Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 2009 Oscar ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 22, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.
Danish Oscar submission
Denmark has submitted its 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar entry: Niels Arden Oplev’s religious drama Worlds Apart / To verdener, which reportedly sold more than 300,000 admissions in that country.
Based on a true story, Worlds Apart tells the story of the youthful Jehovah’s Witness Sara (Rosalinde Mynster), who falls in love with a non-believer (Pilou Asbaek).
From Alissa Simon’s Variety review: “…this provocative, well-turned drama … raises universally pertinent questions about fundamentalist thinking without portraying Witnesses’ beliefs as inherently crazy or evil.”
Niels Arden Oplev also co-wrote the screenplay with Steen Bille. Also in the Worlds Apart cast: Jens Jorn Spottag, Sarah Boberg, and Anders W. Berthelsen.
The Oscar 2009 nominations will be announced on Jan. 22. The awards ceremony will be held on Feb. 22.
The submissions are:
- Afghanistan, Opium War – Dir.: Siddiq Barmak
- Albania, The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider – Dir.: Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani
- Algeria, Masquerades – Dir.: Lyes Salem
- Argentina, Lion’s Den – Dir.: Pablo Trapero
- Austria, Revanche – Dir.: Gotz Spielmann
- Azerbaijan, Fortress – Dir.: Shamil Nacafzada
- Bangladesh, Aha! – Dir.: Enamul Karim Nirjhar
- Belgium, Eldorado – Dir.: Bouli Lanners
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Snow – Dir.: Aida Begic
- Brazil, Last Stop 174 – Dir.: Bruno Barreto
- Bulgaria, Zift – Dir.: Javor Gardev
- Canada, The Necessities of Life – Dir.: Benoit Pilon
- Chile, Tony Manero – Dir.: Pablo Larrain
- China, Dream Weavers – Dir.: Yun Gu
- Colombia, Dog Eat Dog – Dir.: Carlos Moreno
- Croatia, No One’s Son – Dir.: Arsen Anton Ostojic
- Czech Republic, The Karamazovs – Dir.: Petr Zelenka
- Denmark, Worlds Apart – Dir.: Niels Arden Oplev
- Egypt, The Island – Dir.: Sherif Arafa
- Estonia, I Was Here – Dir.: Rene Vilbre
- Finland, The Home of Dark Butterflies – Dir.: Dome Karukoski
- France, The Class – Dir.: Laurent Cantet
- Georgia, Mediator – Dir.: Dito Tsintsadze
- Germany, The Baader Meinhof Complex – Dir.: Uli Edel
- Greece, Correction – Dir.: Thanos Anastopoulos
- Hong Kong, Painted Skin – Dir.: Gordon Chan
- Hungary, Iska’s Journey – Dir.: Csaba Bollok
- Iceland, White Night Wedding – Dir.: Baltasar Kormakur
- India, Taare Zameen Par – Dir.: Aamir Khan
- Iran, The Song of Sparrows – Dir.: Majid Majidi
- Israel, Waltz with Bashir – Dir.: Ari Folman
- Italy, Gomorra – Dir.: Matteo Garrone
- Japan, Departures – Dir.: Yojiro Takita
- Jordan, Captain Abu Raed – Dir.: Amin Matalqa
- Kazakhstan, Tulpan – Dir.: Sergey Dvortsevoy
- Korea, Crossing – Dir.: Tae-kyun Kim
- Kyrgyzstan, Heavens Blue – Dir.: Marie Jaoul de Poncheville
- Latvia, Defenders of Riga – Dir.: Aigars Grauba
- Lebanon, Under the Bombs – Dir.: Philippe Aractingi
- Lithuania, Loss – Dir.: Maris Martinsons
- Luxembourg, Nuits d’Arabie – Dir.: Paul Kieffer
- Macedonia, I’m from Titov Veles – Dir.: Teona Strugar Mitevska
- Mexico, Tear This Heart Out – Dir.: Roberto Sneider
- Morocco, Goodbye Mothers – Dir.: Mohamed Ismail
- The Netherlands, Dunya & Desie – Dir.: Dana Nechushtan
- Norway, O’Horten – Dir.: Bent Hamer
- Palestine, Salt of This Sea – Dir.: Annemarie Jacir
- Philippines, Ploning – Dir.: Dante Nico Garcia
- Poland, Tricks – Dir.: Andrzej Jakimowski
- Portugal, Our Beloved Month of August – Dir.: Miguel Gomes
- Romania, The Rest Is Silence – Dir.: Nae Caranfil
- Russia, Mermaid – Dir.: Anna Melikyan
- Serbia, The Tour – Dir.: Goran Markovic
- Singapore, My Magic – Dir.: Eric Khoo
- Slovakia, Blind Loves – Dir.: Juraj Lehotsky
- Slovenia, Rooster’s Breakfast – Dir.: Marko Nabersnik
- South Africa, Jerusalema – Dir.: Ralph Ziman
- Spain, The Blind Sunflowers – Dir.: José Luis Cuerda
- Sweden, Everlasting Moments – Dir.: Jan Troell
- Switzerland, The Friend – Dir.: Micha Lewinsky
- Taiwan, Cape No. 7 – Dir.: Te-Sheng Wei
- Thailand, Love of Siam – Dir.: Chookiat Sakveerakul
- Turkey, 3 Monkeys – Dir.: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Ukraine, Illusion of Fear – Dir.: Aleksandr Kiriyenko
- United Kingdom, Hope Eternal – Dir.: Karl Francis
- Uruguay, Kill Them All – Dir.: Esteban Schroeder
- Venezuela, The Color of Fame – Dir.: Alejandro Bellame Palacios
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar semifinalists: Cannes Grand Prix winner Gomorrah out of the running
January 2009 update: Wide acclaim, the 2008 Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix, and a handful of major 2008 European Film Awards didn’t help Italy’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award entry – Matteo Garrone’s mafia drama Gomorrah – land a spot on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ list of nine semifinalists in that perennially controversial Oscar category.
Also missing in action is Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in. Why?
Well, even though the Swedish vampire drama has been the Best Foreign Language Film pick of numerous U.S.-based critics groups this awards season, Sweden’s Oscar submission was veteran Jan Troell’s period drama Everlasting Moments – which can be found on the list below.
Out of this year’s 65 (qualifying) Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submissions, the semifinalists are (in alphabetical order by country):
- Austria, Revanche – Dir.: Götz Spielmann
- Canada, The Necessities of Life / Ce qu’il faut pour vivre – Dir.: Benoît Pilon
- France, The Class / Entre les murs – Dir.: Laurent Cantet
- Germany, The Baader Meinhof Complex / Der Baader Meinhof Komplex – Dir.: Uli Edel
- Israel, Waltz with Bashir / Vals Im Bashir – Dir.: Ari Folman
- Japan, Departures / Okuribito – Dir.: Yojiro Takita
- Mexico, Tear This Heart Out / Arráncame la vida – Dir.: Roberto Sneider
- Sweden, Everlasting Moments / Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick – Dir.: Jan Troell
- Turkey, Three Monkeys / Üç Maymun – Dir.: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Punishing Best Foreign Language Film Phase I voters
In recent years, the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film nominees have been chosen in two phases:
The Phase I committee, consisting of “several hundred” Los Angeles-based Academy members (usually of very advanced age), vote on the 65 eligible submissions. How many members actually sit through at least 15 or 20 of those films, is anyone’s guess.
One important change this year was that for the first time the Phase I committee was allowed to choose only six semifinalists. The other three – their titles haven’t been made public – were handpicked by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, chaired by producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man, What Lies Beneath).
Clearly, Phase I voting members are being punished for having failed to select Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or-winning abortion drama 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days / 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile last year.
During the upcoming Phase II, the list of semifinalists will be streamlined so that only five films – the official nominees – will remain in the running. These will be selected by two committees comprising a total of two dozen or so New York City- and Los Angeles-based members, who’ll be spending next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday watching three films per day. Tough luck for the third film each evening.
Foreign Language band-aids
Despite all the band-aids used to cover the potholes littering the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film nomination process, the category remains problematic.
The issue here is not a matter of taste. Instead, it’s a matter of inane rules and regulations preventing quality non-English-language films from even having a chance at landing an Oscar nomination. Not to mention the fact that the relatively small number of Best Foreign Language Film voters aren’t representative of the Academy as a whole.
The 2009 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Jan. 22 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The Oscar ceremony will be held on Sunday, Feb. 22, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Gomorrah image: Fandango.