http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/200 ... oreign.htm

Beverly Hills, CA — A record fifty-eight countries from four continents, including new entrants Costa Rica, Fiji and Iraq, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film Award category, Academy President Sid Ganis announced today.

The 2005 submissions are:

Argentina, "El Aura," Fabian Bielinsky, director;

Bangladesh, "Shyamol Chaya," Humayun Ahmed, director;

Belgium, "The Child," Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, directors;

Bolivia, "Say Good Morning to Dad," Fernando Vargas, director;

Bosnia & Herzegovina, "Totally Personal," Nedžad Begović, director;

Brazil, "Two Sons of Francisco," Breno Silveira, director;

Bulgaria, "Stolen Eyes," Radoslav Spassov, director;

Canada, "C.R.A.Z.Y.," Jean-Marc Vallée, director;

Chile, "Play," Alicia Scherson, director;

China, "The Promise," Chen Kaige, director;

Colombia, "La Sombra del Caminante," Ciro Guerra, director;

Costa Rica, "Caribe," Esteban Ramírez, director;

Croatia, "A Wonderful Night in Split," Arsen Anton Ostojić, director;

Cuba, "Viva Cuba," Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, director;

Czech Republic, "Something Like Happiness," Bohdan Sláma, director;

Denmark, "Adam's Apples," Anders Thomas Jensen, director;

Estonia, "Shop of Dreams," Peeter Urbla, director;

Fiji, "The Land Has Eyes," Vilsoni Hereniko, director;

Finland, "Mother of Mine," Klaus Härö, director;

France, "Joyeux Noel," Christian Carion, director;

Georgia, "Tbilisi-Tbilisi," Levan Zakareishvili, director;

Germany, "Sophie Scholl – The Final Days," Marc Rothemund, director;

Hong Kong, "Perhaps Love," Peter Ho-Sun Chan, director;

Hungary, "Fateless," Lajos Koltai, director;

Iceland, "Ahead of Time," Ágúst Gudmundsson, director;

India, "Paheli," Amol Palekar, director;

Indonesia, "Gie," Riri Riza, director;

Iran, "So Close, So Far," Reza Mir Karimi, director;

Iraq, "Requiem of Snow," Jamil Rostami, director;

Israel, "What a Wonderful Place," Eyal Halfon, director;

Italy, "La Bestia Nel Cuore," Cristina Comencini, director;

Japan, "Blood and Bones," Yoichi Sai, director;

Korea, "Welcome to Dongmakgol," Kwang-hyun Park, director;

Luxembourg, "Renart the Fox," Thierry Schiel, director;

Mexico, "Al Otro Lado," Gustavo Loza, director;

Mongolia, "The Cave of the Yellow Dog," Byambasuren Davaa, director;

The Netherlands, "Bluebird," Mijke de Jong, director;

Norway, "Kissed by Winter," Sara Johnsen, director;

Palestine, "Paradise Now," Hany Abu-Assad, director;

Peru, "Días de Santiago," Josué Méndez, director;

Poland, "The Collector," Feliks Falk, director;

Portugal, "Noite Escura," João Canijo, director;

Puerto Rico, "Cayo," Vicente Juarbe, director;

Romania, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Cristi Puiu, director;

Russia, "The Italian," Andrei Kravchuk, director;

Serbia & Montenegro, "Midwinter Night's Dream," Goran Paskaljević, director;

Singapore, "Be with Me," Eric Khoo, director;

Slovak Republic, "The City of the Sun," Martin Šulík, director;

Slovenia, "The Ruins," Janez Burger, director;

South Africa, "Tsotsi," Gavin Hood, director;

Spain, "Obaba," Montxo Armendáriz, director;

Sweden, "Zozo," Josef Fares, director;

Switzerland, "Tout un Hiver sans Feu," Greg Zglinski, director;

Taiwan, "The Wayward Cloud," Tsai Ming-liang, director;

Tajikistan, "Sex & Philosophy," Mohsen Makhmalbaf, director;

Thailand, "The Tin Mine," Jira Maligool, director;

Turkey, "Lovelorn," Yavuz Turgul, director;

Vietnam, "Buffalo Boy," Nguyen Vo Nghiem Mihn, director.

Foreign lauguage nominees tend to have surprises, and no lock is lock (the snub of House of Flying Daggers last year comes to mind), but with its People's Choice Award at Toronto, Tsotsi looks to be the surest thing for a nomination. France didn't submit March of the Penguins; otherwise it will be a big contender. And I don't know why Taiwan submitted a porno.

Israel



If its not Walk on Water I'm going to be one mighty pissed woman.

Walk on Water was produced by a UK/Isreal film company, it's partially in English and the director is American.

It's not eligible.

Ok. I'm pissed then.

I thought it was a language restriction? More than half had to be not in English. Adding the German and Hebrew together, probably over half of it wasn't in English. This is why Maria Full of Grace got passed over for a nom last year too right?

*stomps off in a huff*

I thought the director/producer being american rule was for the IFPs.

http://www.oscars.org/78academyawards/rules/rule14.html


Maria Full of Grace had 3 American Production companies tied to it (including HBO). Same can be said of The Passion of the Christ. Produced by Americans (among others).


etc.

I think the rules are fair. They are there to help truly foreign productions.

3. The submitting country must certify that creative talent of that country exercised artistic control of the film.

so even if the director is american but the rest of the people involved are not, it's still not foreign?


the writer for walk on water was born in israel.

the director was born in new york, but has lived in israel since age 2. i'm not saying you're wrong, but it seems silly to disqualify it jsut because of that.

It's also heavily in English.

It's real title is "Walk on Water" not the Hebrew translation.

And I was wrong about one thing, one of the production partners is Swedish or French I think.

And one additional thing... it ran in Isreal in March of 2004. Even if everything here was okay, it would have been considered for last year. Since it ran in the USA this year it is eligible for any award BUT Foreign film.

That means little. Israel is heavily English. in fact even public school kids there are required to start taking English classes by third grade, and almost all people under 30 (probably even older) speak it unless they're in some buble on a yeshiva, and even those...only the extreme ones. I'm fine with their arguement of gauranteeing national creative hand, but then language should have little to do with it. Half the world speaks other languages, and half the world lives in communities outside its home country right now. More Hebrew is probably spoken in brooklyn than Israel!

I also wonder how that allows for criticism or under represented voices to speak up from a country. Women (for example) in certain countries that might try to do under ground film and get it out, or left the country and are doing a film about their past experiences there (in retrospect) from the security of a new place. Does that mean they don't have a regional/local voice anymore?

Oh yeah, and I have no arguement for the 2004 thing. I've said in the past that it should be based on when it comes here due to how delayed the release dates can be, but its more due to my desire to see increased awareness, box office numbers, marketing for imports, not because I'm ethically opposed to it being according to its home release date.

That doesn't matter. You don't see English Canadian, Australian or UK films nominated. There is a Foreign Language component to this award.


I merely posted "the rules". The official language is Hebrew. To me, I would interperet Walk on Water not qualifying for a Foreign Language Oscar.


What do you mean?


Why is the Oscar the be-all-end-all representation for the "voice of the underclass".

1. The Oscar doesn't prevent films from being made.
2. The country chooses a film to submit for nomination
3. Five nominees are chosen out of that bunch.

If the miniority is repressed then it likely won't be chosen as part of #2.

The rules say that dialects and sub-languages (that are not English) are eligible.


Technically, Walk on Water's distribution isn't as difficult because it has an English component. The same can be said of Uk/australian/Canadian English films.

The Academy Rules, in my view, are great for getting international films in the running that would usually never find distribution in the United States. To me, this is better than having looser rules that would allow for Mel Gibson to go to some foreign country and shoot a "foreign" film for 100 million dollars and win an Oscar.

Final list updated. See first post.

Paradise Now is getting a lot of promotion.

I've heard good things of Joyeux Noel (sorry too lazy to scroll up for spelling!).

Do you really think that's fair?

Not even an Foriegn Language Academy Award nomination guarentees a US release date. I think they way they do it is just fine, that way there is a bigger potential for a film to get theatrically distributed in the US. Otherwise it would be the same directors all the time getting the nominations because so few foriegn language films get released here.

Go Cayo!

Looks like it'll be the third year in a row with a German movie among the Best Foreign Picture nominees.

I simply don't see how a movie like Sophie Scholl can not get nominated. I don't thuink it will win, but then again, who knows. There is no clear frontrunner this year in the category like The Sea Inside was last year all the way.

Also, expect Fateless to get nominated. It deals with Holocaust.

My current predictions (judging, as usual, by titles alone):

Luxembourg, "Renart the Fox," Thierry Schiel, director;
Mongolia, "The Cave of the Yellow Dog," Byambasuren Davaa, director;
Romania, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Cristi Puiu, director;
Thailand, "The Tin Mine," Jira Maligool, director;
Vietnam, "Buffalo Boy," Nguyen Vo Nghiem Mihn, director


Other titles I like:

Croatia, "A Wonderful Night in Split," Arsen Anton Ostojić, director;
Iraq, "Requiem of Snow," Jamil Rostami, director;
Japan, "Blood and Bones," Yoichi Sai, director;

Is there any general consensus/opinions yet? I couldn't find a thread on OW (Though I just skimmed kinda quickly)

variety.com

Also DQed: Bolivia's Say Good Morning to Dad and Tajikistan's Sex & Philosophy. Missed some "proper subtitle" deadline.

Some of these rules are completely idiotic!

I mean what harm is going to come from a flm being televised?

Oh no. Cacha didn't even make the cut? I thought it was getitng alot of buzz as best import of the year in the smaller awards.

Movieman. I disagree. A nimination from another ocuntry in no way means distribution here, but a nomination, coupled with an Oscar nomination, released two years later, is as virtually dead in the water. Maybe a country wants to nominate first from its own pool, and I think that's ok. That nomination (big or small director) is the one they try to champion here. Most likely, no one will know of here of any of these movies, and these movies will curculate in two theatres top (barring the winner which will eventually get more). However, if they were being released here this year, than award enthusiasts would try to check them out, thus ensuring even smaller directions actually get more attention and financial support here. If the movie only comes out next year (due to release timing) than it should still be elligable for next year's awards because that is who the home country wanted to support. It would get either theatre viewing then, or at least more dvd rentals. The home country has just as much right to push through a second film of the same carry-over year. If they are both better than anything else that came out "that year" in the States, I see no problem with having two go through. Generally there still isn't much more than one a year, as the imports always have to wait to find distribution after they've been designated the top pick of that ocuntry that year. So, usually that only means one designate will be circulating here for any given year, but if one is January, and the other in Novemeber, so be it...then the following year that home country won't have an antry at all.

I think its in the import business'es best interest to milk the Oscars for theatre and dvd sales, neither of which happen since these movies lag in release so long after the ceremonies. We're actually doing breakthrough directors a disservice.

(Cache)
Apparently France thought Joyeux Noel would have a better chance. Actually, they mightn't have had a choice - IMDb has its country listed as "France / Austria / Germany / Italy". Not sure exactly how that works, but...yknow.

Or the studios could lose millions distributing films that have no audience. Otherwise they just play in New York, Los Angeles and some of the bigger markets, where they also would get beat upon by US indies.


The deal here is that the Academy isn't holding meeting with the studios asking when they are going to be releasing films, they have the rules that are totally independent of whether or not a film gets theatrical release in the US.


This favors large countries even more.

The rules are set up to promote film worldwide, not just in France and Germany. Having the ability to flood the market with (for example) German product would be akin to sending like 5 separate US Basketball teams to the Olympics.

Think of the Oscar Foreign category like you would the Olympics, there are "champions" who go to the semi-finals.

If you want to be mad at the studios then... okay. But heavily advertised foreing films (like Paradise Now) just don't bring people into the theaters. Knowing what I know of the way the system works, as a studio exec, I don't think I could justify releasing many foreign films except to keep a little bit of art alive.

They do better on DVD anyway.