Foreign Language Film Submissions

[Precious Doll]

Some more updates. Of note is that Denmark is considering The Hunt (a little too old I would have thought) and the documentary The Art of Killing, which does seem like an odd choice but I recall that Germany may have submitted the Wim Wender's Pina a couple of years ago, so whats good for one is good for another.

Azerbaijan announced that it was considering two films to represent the country at the Oscars, namely Steppe Man and Sunrise Messenger.

Denmark's Danish Film Institute shortlisted three films: The Hunt, The Act of Killing and Northwest.

Iran confirmed its participation and appointed a jury committee to select a film for submission, after boycotting the 2013 Oscars.

Israel announced on 14 August 2013 that five films would compete for Best Picture at the Ophir Awards and that per the rules of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television the winner would represent Israel at the Oscars. The five nominees are Bethlehem, Candies, Hunting Elephants, Magic Men and Six Times. The ceremony will be held on September 28th.

Mexico's Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas announced a shortlist of fifteen films that would be considered to represent Mexico at the 2014 Oscars. The official submission is scheduled to be announced on 18 September.

Norway announced a three-film shortlist: It’s Only Make Believe by Arild Østin Ommundsen, I Am Yours by Iram Haq and Pioneer by Erik Skjoldbjærg. The winning film will be announced on 20 September.

Pakistan announced that they would submit a film for the first time in 50 years.

Philippines announced a shortlist of eight films that would compete to be the Filipino submission: Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, On the Job, Thy Womb, Supremo, El Presidente, Dance of the Steel Bars, Tuhog and Boses. The Film Academy of the Philippines indicated that new Filipino films released in September 2013 could also be added.

Portugal confirmed its participation and released a list of the sixteen films that would be considered eligible to represent Portugal.

Spain confirmed its participation. The Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España indicated it would announce its three-film shortlist on 9 September and the official Spanish submission on 25 September.

Ukraine have shortlisted Paradjanov, Eternal Return and Haytarma and will announce their entry on 12 September.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Italy, South Africa and Switzerland also confirmed their participation.

[Precious Doll]

Not yet. There are still lots of countries so announce their selection.

[Reza]

Has India announced it's submission?

[Precious Doll]

More submissions:

Chile - Gloria
Georgia - In Bloom
Japan - The Great Passage (can't believe they passed on Like Father, Like Son)
Sweden - Eat Sleep Die

[Precious Doll]

A few more submissions;

Austria - The Wall
Bulgaria - Colour of the Chameleon
Turkey - The Butterfly's Dream

[Precious Doll]

Ilo Ilo has a good chance of a nomination. It's a real crowd pleaser that ropes in the audience with great ease (well it did with the one I saw it with).

Though telling a type of story that's been done to death, writer/director Anthony Chen brings such freshness to the piece. He is only 29 and the film recently won the Golden Camera at Cannes.

The performances are all very good, particularly Angeli Bayani who plays a maid hired by a middle class Singaporean family and Yann Yann Yeo as the mother, who has one of the funnies scenes I've seen this year.

[anonymous1980]

Singapore has gone with Ilo-Ilo which won an award an Cannes. We Filipinos have a vested interest in this film because it's about the relationship between a Filipina nanny and her Singaporean ward and the nanny is played by Filipina actress Angeli Bayani. (which I have a sort of connection with since her manager is a friend of mine).

[Heksagon]

Finland's entry is Disciple, directed by Ulrika Bengts.

The film hasn't opened yet, and I have never heard of the director before, so I don't know much about this film. Apparently the film is a historical horror film ("psychological thriller" as the trailer calls its) set in a lighthouse. It's safe to say it won't get nominated.

[anonymous1980]

Juvenile Offender is an excellent picture but probably the most conventional Korean film I've ever seen. Watch it get nominated.

[Precious Doll]

From Wikipedia, here are the submissions so far as of 14 September:

Australia - The Rocket
Austria - The Wall
Bulgaria - Colour of the Chameleon
Chile - Gloria
Croatia - Halim'a Path
Dominican Republic - Who's the Boss?
Finland - Disciple
Georgia - In Bloom
Germany - Two Lives
Greece - Boy Eating the Bird's Food
Hungary - The Notebook
Latvia - Mother I Love You
Luxembourg - Blind Spot
Montenegro - Bad Destiny
Morocco - God's Horses
Nepal - Soongava: Dance of the Orchids
Netherlands - Borgman
New Zealand - White Lies
Pakistan - Zinda Bhaag
Portugal - Lines of Wellington
Romania - Child's Pose
Saudi Arabia - Wadjda
Serbia - Circles
Singapore - Ilo Ilo
South Korea - Juvenile Offender
Sweden - Eat Sleep Die
Turkey - The Butterfly's Dream
Ukraine - Paradjanov
Venezuela - Breach in the Silence

[anonymous1980]

We have narrowed down our candidates to seven.

Unfortunately, Transit failed to qualify. Perhaps maybe next year. Among the candidates, I've seen three: Thy Womb which is of course Brillante Mendoza's latest opus. It's generating great reviews on the festival circuit. On the Job which is currently showing in theaters and got solid reviews when it screened at Cannes (it already has a U.S. remake in the works, unfortunately directed by the guy who did 2 Guns) and Tiktik, a visually lavish horror-comedy film which a lot of people loved but not me. The latter two is directed by Erik Matti who's pretty much our hottest mainstream director.

As for the rest of the entries, Supremo and Boses got fairly solid reviews. The former is a historical epic and the latter is a sweet wholesome drama about a kid violinist. El Presidente is another historical epic about Emilio Aguinaldo but is panned by most of our "top" critics and cinephiles. The last is Dance of the Steel Bars is a prison drama that features American actor Patrick Bergin and it is inspired by the youtube viral video of prison inmates dancing to Michael Jackson songs.

Either Thy Womb or On The Job would make for solid entries though the latter would be too "genre" for the Academy.

[Big Magilla]

I read somewhere that this is the film that might finally get the Philippines a berth at the Oscars. The Israeli locale certainly helps.

[anonymous1980]

For the Philippines, I *hope* they'll submit Transit, a beautiful, absolutely remarkable drama about Filipinos living in Israel trying to evade the new law that deports children of non-Jewish foreign workers below 5 years old. Here's the trailer. It swept the awards when it premiered at the Cinemalaya Film Festival here (sort of like our Sundance). I don't know it can be eligible but I'm hoping it is because I'm hoping it will catch the eye of a major distributor. It has yet to make the international festival rounds, however.

Though they could go with Brillante Mendoza's Thy Womb which also won in quite a number international film festivals already. I've seen it. It's not as great as his previous works but a solid enough entry.

[Precious Doll]

These will start coming in next month.

These are predictions of films I think are likely to be submitted by some countries:

Australia: The Rocket
Bangladesh: Television
Belgium: Tenderness (if it is French language films turn this year)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: An Episode in the Life or an Iron Picker
Chad: Grigris
Chile: Gloria
Hong King: The Grandmaster
Italy: The Great Beauty
Japan: Like Father, Like Son
Mexico: Heli
The Netherlands: Borgman
Palestine: Omar
Poland: Walesa
Romania: Child's Pose
Singapore: Ilo Ilo
Spain: I'm So Excited (only if they are really desperate)
Turkey: Jin

I would like to think that China would submit A Touch of Sin but with its scathing 'warts and all' portrayal of contemporary China this seems unlikely.

It would be nice to see Canada submit Vic + Flo Saw a Bear but the film is too left field for Academy tastes and Canada almost always plays safe.

France is tricky this year. The Past would seem a suitable candidate and wether Iran can submit it could be an issue. If Iran gets to submit The Past then its almost impossible to guess what France would do. They could go lesbic with Blue is the Warmest Colour or gay with Stranger by the Lake, the two most acclaimed French films of the year.

However a three hours lesbian drama with allegedly explicit sex scenes (even though we know now it was all 'faked') and a gay crusin'/serial killer film with oodles of male nudity aren't really within the Academies comfort zone. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.