My money is on either Waltz with Bashir or The Class (entre les murs) winning.
I’m 90% certain the winner will be The Class, it’s pretty much a guarantee.
Waltz with Bashir completely slipped my mind.
I felt the same way about The Class for the Louis Delluc prize. Imagine my surprise when La Vie Moderne, a documentary on the rural dairy farming community in France, won the Prix Louis Delluc.
Everyone seems to be loving ‘Gomorrah’, even though I MUCH prefer ‘Entre les murs.’ Trying to figure out what will and won’t be nominated in the foreign category is a futile game. The Academy still can’t figure out how to properly arrange this category, and you’ll notice that emotional, “important” drivel always beats out challenging works of art. ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ not getting nominated last year was one of the Academy’s biggest mistakes in their entire history.
@JOE : you were right about 4 days… I did not love the winning counterfeiters either, well it surely deserved a nomination but never a win.
@NIKHIL: the fifth nomination will be for slumdog millionaire – the rate at which it is winning hearts, akin to amelie – circa 2001
Andy, I’m sure Slumdog Millionaire is up for big Oscar glory this time but I think it will be nominated in categories like Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Music and maybe, just maybe Best Picture. I doubt it will make the Best Foreign Film. If I’m not wrong last year Israel had to pull out The Band’s Visit and replace it with Beaufort because of the film’s preponderant use of English, more than 50 percent of the dialogue.
“Waltz With Bashir” will probably be shortlisted. “Badder Meinhof Complex” is a possibility, but it was a very flawed film. Whereas, “Bashir” has been near-universally praised.
I was tepid about ‘Waltz with Bashir’ – it lacked focus. ‘Slumdog’ isn’t eligible in the foreign-language category (which makes sense as it’s mainly a British/American co-production and less than a third of the dialogue is in Hindi). You can find the full list here, by country: http://www.indiewire.com/biz/2008/10/67_foreign_lang.html
“Reprise” (Norway) directed by Joachim Trier, written by Trier and Eskil Vogt.
Reprise came out in 2006 in Norway, so it wouldn’t be eligible for the foreign language category. As it was released in the US this year, it could (but likely won’t, unfortunately) be nominated in any of the other slots.
I would love for Reprise to be nominated
I haven’t seen The Class yet, but am really looking forward to it.
It’s hard to tell who will eventually win the Oscar based off of the critics’ awards…everyone is giving their best foreign language award to “Let the Right One In,” but it wasn’t submitted into the foreign language competition for the Oscars.
Based on reviews and buzz, it seems “Gomorra” is the one to beat.
According to the link JOE posted, Reprise is not entered this year. Why did it not make it in 2006?
Foreign films don’t necessarily have to be released in the US to be nominated, do they?
They are changing some of the rulings this year, and I haven’t found a website anywhere that explains it in any specific detail; however, the way the foreign nominees are chosen is by each country submitting one film that was released in their country between certain dates. A committee of old people then narrow the list down to 5, and Academy members who attend the screenings of all 5 can vote in that category.
This is easily the most controversial award given out each year, as the Academy’s attempt at fairness always results in critical snubs. Plenty of films have been disqualified for a variety of reasons. Lust, Caution had too many ties to the US, Lilja 4-ever was a Swedish film with mostly Russian dialogue, The Band’s Visit had too much English in it. By having a country select only one, often their choice is political and usually ignores what most people would regard as their best choice. Spain chose Mondays in the Sun over Talk to Her, because they didn’t want a film which might be seen as sympathetic toward a rapist to represent their country. France chose Persepolis last year over what would have been their best bet, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, likely because it was directed by an American.
Sometimes the Academy remedies the situations by nominating films like Talk to Her, City of God, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Y tu mamá también, which either weren’t selected by their country or were criminally overlooked during the year they were eligible for the Foreign category. With Talk to Her being the notable exception, the nominations seldom result in a win.
Great insight Joe. I guess this category will always be controversial and there’s no one best way to do this.
So can we lock our four of five likely nominees?
Gomorra – Italy
Entre les murs – France
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex – Germany
Waltz with Bashir – Israel
The overlooked fifth nominee, probably a dark horse in this category, might just walk away with a win.
Did anyone think Il Divo should’ve been Italy’s entry?
Nikhil, I never try to predict the nominees. Last year’s two absolutes (4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Persepolis) didn’t even get nominated, and it seems to be pretty commonplace that the films everyone loves get overlooked. They narrow the big list down to around 10 before announcing the 5 nominees; I’ll be sure to post that when I see it.
Predicting these things are just cheap thrills to me. Cheers Joe, will look out for it.
GOMORRAH is great
Shouldn’t the topic read best foreign film of 2008? I’ll concede that the majority of people won’t see these films until 2009, but if I’m correct these films are up for consideration this year.
Here’s hoping that the list consists of:
Gomorrah
The Class
Let The Right One In
Waltz with Bashir
I suppose Flight of the Red Balloon won’t get the love it desires. And what happened to 3 Monkeys? I thought that film had so much promise coming out of Cannes.
3 Monkeys is still Turkey’s choice, but Sweden didn’t select Let the Right One In as theirs.
I know I pledged to give up deadly sins in the new year, but I just have to voice my envy of all who live near metropolitan areas and have such a blessed opportunity to regularly watch foreign films. I’m four hours from a number of major cities, but frequent travel is neither practical nor in the budget. So please keep the titles coming so this Nor’easterner can file them away in his Netflix hope chest for future reward.
I’ve heard great things about Let The Right One In
It’s definitely going to be between Slumdog and Let the Right one in.
“Let the Right One IN” HANDS DOWN, THE BEST FILM (NOT ONLY FOREIGN) OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!
Blu Ray is on it’ s way in March.
I thought Elite Squad was quite good, despite its debatable politics. But since we’re talking about film and not politics, I would recommend it. Did not expect to enjoy Slumdog but found it highly satisfying despite a major narrative structure element I thought was wrong. Thought Tell No One and A Girl Cut In Two were both excellent. And I thought Chrysalis and Captain Abu raed were very good.
I have Reprise in my Netflix Instant Watch Queue and Bashir comes out locally sometime in January, I think.
Most of these films have yet to play in my area(Detroit) except for Slumdog and Tell No One. So for me Foreign films have seen rather lean this year.
I posted the list of each country’s submissions, most of these films you’re mentioning are not eligible.
Not to mention the fact that about 2/3 of Slumdog is in English.
I haven’t yet seen many of the films mentioned so far, but I thought the best films of the year were all foreign ones. In no particular order, I’d list “Let the Right One In,” “The Duchess of Langeais,” “The Last Mistress,” “Tell No One,” and “Roman de Gare.”
Nikhil
There has been a record 67 entries for 2009.
I’ve heard enough and seen one of the three widely praised and applauded:
Entre Les Murs – France
Gomorra – Italy
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex – Germany
What among the other 64 should I be looking out for? And what are your predictions – nominees and winner – in this category?