No Tarr!!! Looks like a shoe-in for A Separation.
No Wales, a pity. Tarr, Ceylan, Kaurismaki are not typical Oscar fodder. Oscars tend to celebrate mediocrity, lowest common denominator type choices, and the “Foreign” category has not been strong in the last few decades
Does that mean Pina won’t be up for documentary or can you be up for both?
I’ll be happy enough if A Separation wins…has anyone seen any of the others? I haven’t seen any of them yet. Are any of them worth watching?
I want to see the Israeli film which I hear is very good. The Taiwanese film sounds fascinating. Superclásico looks like solid Danish filmmaking that we come to expect. I don’t like the director of Monsieur Lazhar.
I like both Pina and Separation, but i would be disappointed if i don’t like a few others more.
Actually, I’d be surprised if any of the voters saw any of these films. The Acadamy just can’t do any worse can they?
In Darkness is brilliant filmmaking, but I would be surprised if anything beat A Separation for good reason.
Omar Killed Me has got to be one of the worst films of the year.
With the biggest budget of a Chinese film ever, the government has to be disappointed Zhang’s The Flowers of War isn’t up there.
Portugal or France should have selected Mysteries of Lisbon as their entry.
I think A Separation is the favorite but I don’t think that means it’ll win. The White Ribbon was the favorite two years ago and yet The Secret in Their Eyes won. This category is the most dysfunctional category in all the Oscars.
In Darkness could easily win because the Academy likes the Holocaust. I didn’t think it was anything special though – it’s essentially Anne Frank in the sewers.
If I had to guess, A Separation, In Darkness, and Footnote will all be nominated (SPC has had three films nominated in this category for the past several years and I would expect this year is no difference). Throw in Pina and maybe a wild card like Bullhead (which won an audience award at AFI) and there’s your nominees.
Santino, I think the Documentary category is the most dysfunctional, I think the the FLF category is hurt by allowing the countries to nominate the films to represent them and the politics that always come into play.
I agree, the doc category is also screwed up. Both categories tend to award (and even nominate) only the worst movies of the bunch. Sure, requiring countries to only submit one film makes things a bit uneven but ultimately, even amongst the nominated films, the Academy typically chooses poorly (ironically, the Golden Globes are much better at awarding best foreign language film).
@ Ari
Films can be shortlisted in both categories, as Pina in fact has. Here’s the docs shortlist:
Battle for Brooklyn
Bill Cunningham New York
Buck
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Jane’s Journey
The Loving Story
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Project Nim
Semper Fi: Always Faithful
Sing Your Song
Undefeated
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
We Were Here
As if Tarr would ever be nominated for an oscar hahah. C’mon!!
…
No Tarr, No Almodovar, no Kaurismaki.
The doc list isn’t bad, but where’s Herzog? I did like some of the documentaries listed however.
I’m no great proponent of The Oscars, however it should be fairly noted that this is one category where the AMPAS has very little influence as what is chosen to be nominated. The films are first “officially” submitted by the countries in which they were made.
Ha! This is the one category that I nearly nailed:
In Darkness
Footnote
A Separation
Bullhead
The only one I was wrong about was Pina, which got a doc nod instead. So the wild card was Monsieur Lazhar from Canada.
Of course A Separation is the favorite but just as The White Ribbon was the overwhelming favorite two years ago but lost to The Secret in Their Eyes, I’m pretty sure one of these other films will win. My cynical self leans towards In Darkness, just because the Academy loves the Holocaust.
Was Poetry eligible for the shortlist? If so, Big Snub.
I don’t know if Poetry was eligible this year.
“This category is the most dysfunctional category in all the Oscars”
Yeah, it’s like the special olympics isn’t it? At least in how it’s treated.
The oscars are such a joke.
Poetry was eligible for last year’s awards, but was not submitted by South Korea.
“Omar Killed Me has got to be one of the worst films of the year.”
“Yes too bad. You could warn them, if only you spoke Hovito’s”
Wow, so there really is a country where they pronounce the word “movie” as “mubi”: These goats really like Bullhead.
Scampi
Just read this over at RopeofSilicon. Here’s the shortlist:
Bullhead (Belgium)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
Superclásico (Denmark)
Pina (Germany)
A Separation (Iran)
Footnote (Israel)
Omar Killed Me (Morocco)
In Darkness (Poland)
Warriors of the Rainbow (Taiwan)
Very different list than I was expecting…no Tarr, no Ceylan, no Kaurismaki…
Thoughts?