In Contention

Tag: The First Beautiful Thing

  • Oscar’s foreign race hasn’t found the fix

    How do you solve a problem like Best Foreign Language Film? I’m not sure you can, but in the Academy’s case, it’s certainly not for lack of trying.

    The voting process in this eternally dissatisfying ghetto category is now such a Frankenstein’s monster of stages, rules, committees, sub-committees, longlists, shortlists and more committees that it’s a wonder they manage to wind up picking a single film at the end of it all — and rather less of a wonder that said film usually carries the stale whiff of a compromise choice.

    This year’s race, thoroughly mapped out by Kris in this week’s Oscar Guide, looks headed for a typically imperfect outcome — opinions on the five films that make up the category may vary, but few would argue that the overall slate represents the key stories of world cinema in 2010. The trouble set in early, with several of the year’s biggest crossover critical hits ruled out at the submissions stage.

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  • Foreign Oscar watch: Israel, Italy, Germany and Sweden

    A couple of months ago, I compiled some critical thoughts on five films in contention for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, ranging from the hotly fancied (France’s “Of Gods and Men”) to the longest of long shots (Estonia’s “The Temptation of St. Tony”). It was intended to be the first in a series of posts spotlighting as many of the 65 submissions as I could get my hands on — but alas, in the chaos of the season, my plans got away from me.

    Now, with exactly a week to go until the Academy announces the nine-film shortlist on 19 January, it’s time to belatedly return to the category. At this late stage, I’ve still seen only a third of the competing field, with a handful of unseen screeners patiently piled atop my DVD player. Sadly, two of the films most heavily tipped for a nomination — Canada’s “Incendies” and Denmark’s Golden Globe-nominated “In a Better World” — are not among them.

    I have, however, caught up with the submissions of four countries frequently favored by the Academy. My viewing, however, only confirmed the relative scarcity of obvious heavyweights in what is always an unpredictable race.

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  • Italy and Spain enter foreign Oscar race

    With the official (though not necessarily final) deadline for submissions just two days away, there’s been a flood of new additions to the list in the past few days, including two big guns that were holding out on us — Italy and Spain. (Check out our updated list, now up to 55 titles, here.)

    Among those who follow this race, all eyes were on Italy’s selection, and not just because the country still holds the record for most wins in the category. (The Italians’ fortunes have dipped rather in recent years, however: since “Life is Beautiful” triumphed in 1998, they’ve managed only a single unsuccessful nod.) With a shortlist of 10 contenders to choose from, it was difficult to predict which way the Italian selectors might lean.

    Many Oscar-watchers assumed that the high-profile Tilda Swinton starrer “I Am Love” would get picked, but that was always unlikely: far less well-received in its home country than in English-speaking territories, chances are the film’s stylistic excesses wouldn’t have been to the Academy’s taste either.

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