Very Early Predictions - 2014 Oscar Nominations

As we know the Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 16, 2014 but as the majority of critics groups have already announced their 2013 winners plus we have at least one guild nominations and because some of you have been asking for how I see the possible Oscar nominations, will dare to play the guessing game this early.

Please recall that -with exception of the guilds- NONE of the critics are Academy members consequently do not vote in the nomination process, but definitively they are viewer's influencer and after all, like it or not, Academy members are also viewers.

My crystal ball says that for the following categories probable Oscar nominations are ...

Best Picture
Very Sure
12 Years a Slave
Gravity

Maybe
Her
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Dallas Buyers Club
Inside Llewyn Davis
Saving Mr. Banks
Philomena

Wouldn't mind if are NOT nominated
Captain Phillips
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
Lee Daniels' The Butler

Dare the Academy to nominate
Blue is the Warmest Color
Jagten (The Hunt)

Best Foreign Language Film
Very Sure
Jagten (The Hunt)
La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty)

Maybe
The Broken Circle Breakdown
L'image manquante (The Missing Picture)
Omar
The Notebook
Two Lives

My Winner: The Hunt

Best Director
Very Sure
Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave

Maybe
Spike Jonze for Her
David O. Russel for American Hustle
Joel and Ethan Coen for Inside Llewyn Davis

Wouldn't mind if are NOT nominated
Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips
Alexander Payne for Nebraska
Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

Dare the Academy to nominate
Woody Allen for Blue Jasmine
Abdellatif Kechiche for Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Actress
Very Sure
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock in Gravity

Hope the next three (to make the 5 nominees) are:
Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench in Philomena
Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

Maybe
Brie Larson in Short Term 12
Kate Winslet in Labor Day
Greta Gerwing in Frances Ha

Dare the Academy to nominate
Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Supporting Actress
Very Sure
Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave

Maybe
Amy Adams in American Hustle (should be nominated in this category to have better chances)
Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine
June Squibb in Nebraska
Octavia Spencer in Frutivale Station

Wouldn't mind if are NOT nominated
Julia Roberts in August: Osage County
Oprah Winfrey in Lee Daniels' The Butler

Dare the Academy to nominate
Scarlett Johansson in Her (already read that will not qualify BUT absolutely disagree, voice only require great performances; if not agree, have you seen dubbed movies with awful voices that have absolutely nothing to do with what you see in the screen?)

Best Actor
Very Sure
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave

Maybe
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club
Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips
Bruce Dern in Nebraska
Forest Whitaker in Lee Daniels' The Butler
Joaquin Phoenix in Her
Michael B. Jordan in Frutivale Station

Wouldn't mind if are NOT nominated
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis
Robert Redford in All is Lost

Dare the Academy to nominate
Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt

Best Supporting Actor
Very Sure
Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Maybe
Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave
Daniel Bruhl in Rush
Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
James Gandolfini in Enough Said

Wouldn't mind if are NOT nominated
James Franco in Spring Breakers

Best Documentary
Very Sure
The Act of Killing
Stories We Tell

Maybe
20 Feet From Stardom
Blackfish
The Square
The Crash Reel (because director is Lucy Walker)

Movie that will win most tech awards, similar to what Life of Pi did last year, Gravity.

Up-to-date most critics predictions for all categories rotate around the SAME movies, let's hope that when the nominations are announced they include a larger number of films and not only the 5+ that many predict will be nominated so will not be too easy to guess who will win in what category. Sigh.

That's it. Wont guess more as is too early. But if you ask me which movie(s) I believe is the best that have seen during 2013 have to say that there are three choices that make very difficult to select only one: The Hunt, Blue is the Warmest Color and The Act of Killing.

86th Academy Awards Foreign-Language Film - Shortlist of 9

To my surprise late yesterday the Academy released the names of the nine (9) films that will advance to the next round of voting in the category and to must Oscar season followers the selected films meant surprises and huge snubs. We know that every year this is one of the most controversial Oscar categories and this year is NO exception.

There is an article written by Scott Feinberg that if you wish to read in full go here, that could help us understand more about the selection process. The following is a cut and paste paragraph from the article.

The Academy's best foreign-language film Oscar short-list is determined in two phases. During the first, all of the eligible submissions -- which this year numbered 76 and included three documentaries, two animated films and 16 films directed by women -- are divided into groups, as are the members of a foreign-language committee which consists of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, all volunteers from a wide cross-section of the Academy's branches whose names are never released. Each group of members is then assigned to a different group of films. In order to retain the right to weigh in on the short-list at the end of the process, members must attend screenings of a certain percentage of the films in their assigned group. This year, screenings of all of the submissions took place between mid-Oct. and Dec. 16, and members had to attend no fewer than 17. Those who maintained their eligibility then got to vote, and their six highest-scoring films were passed along to an executive committee.

So we know that watching 76 films is almost humanly impossible in a couple of months (unless you really enjoy films like me) so the shortlist is generated by selecting films from each of the groups with eligible voters. From this exercise six (6) films are selected giving to the executive committee the task to add 3 more films that they considered HAVE to be in the shortlist. If you don't remember this decision came after excellent non-commercial films were left out of the race. Even if the process has improved a lot than in the past, still is not infallible and excellent movies are left out of the race in the first phase.

From the films I have seen major snubs for me come from countries like Argentina, Chile, Iran, Mexico and Romania. These five films are absolutely must be seen and strongly recommend you do not skip them. But then let's be honest, if you enjoy great cinema there are about 50+ movies that were submitted to Oscar that are must be seen for me and most of you that read the blog regularly, so I assume that all the fuzz and buzz about snubbing is that some USA distributors already had commitments with movies that they hoped will made the list of nine at least.

From the list of 9 films, haven't seen more than half BUT can share with you that definitively The Hunt and The Great Beauty HAVE to be nominated plus if one of them wins the Oscar I would not be upset at all. Still my Oscar goes to The Hunt even when Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza was a true cinephile pleasure like the ones that Fellini used to give us back then.

These are the nine (9) films that advance to the second phase that ends with generating five nominees to be announced on Thursday, January 16, 2014 at 5:30 am PT.

Belgium: The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen (Berlinale)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Epizoda u životu berača željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), Danisa Tanovića (Berlinale Jury Grand Prix winner)
Cambodia: L'image manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh (documentary) (Cannes Un Certain Regard winner)
Denmark: Jagten (The Hunt), Thomas Vinterberg (Cannes 2012)
Germany: Zwei Leben (Two Lives), Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas
Hong Kong: 一代宗师 Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster), Kar Wai Wong (Berlinale)
Hungary: A nagy füzet (The Notebook), János Szász, (Crystal Globe for Best Film at 2013 Karlovy Vary)
Italy: La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino (Cannes)
Palestine: Omar, Hany Abu-Assad (Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize winner)

Basically we have 4 Cannes films, 3 Berlinale films, 1 from Karlovy Vary and 1 film from Göteborg (Germany), so ALL are festival films, which only assures an above average film quality. Let's go more in-depth.

Belgium: The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen
From all the films in shortlist perhaps this is the one that pleased audiences the most as many of the film accolades are Audience Awards in festivals like Berlinale, Karlovy Vary, Tallinn Black Nights, etc.

I believe that film has excellent performances, great screenplay, and good director which makes a very unusual non-commercial crowd pleaser film.


Bosnia and Herzegovina: Epizoda u životu berača željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), Danisa Tanovića
To be honest I was going to skip this film but now I know will watch it as not only won the Jury Grand Prix at 2013 Berlinale but now is being honored by the Academy.

From trailer and images imagine that will be not easy to watch; still story reminds me of a great Romanian movie about how hard life can be when you deal with state institutions.

Cambodia: L'image manquante (The Missing Picture) by Rithy Panh
The most interesting facts about this film is that is a documentary, is animated plus tells a story that IF told not this way surely could be unwatchable. Film has collected major honors like the Un Certain Regard Award at 2013 Cannes, Best Documentary Award at 2013 European Film Awards and 2013 Jerusalem Film Festival's In Spirit for Freedom Award.

No doubt that 2013 is the year when documentaries told unthinkable stories in the most unthinkable way (bordering beauty) that definitively touches viewers deep. Also think Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing.

Denmark: Jagten (The Hunt), Thomas Vinterberg
Thomas Vinterberg masterful opus won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in 2012 Cannes as well as Best Actor for the incredible performance by Mads Mikkelsen; also won Best Screenwriter award at 2012 European Film Awards, 2013 Nordic Council's Film Prize Award and was not 2012 Denmark submission to Oscar because was released after the Academy deadline. So one year after was sent and made the shortlist of 9. Not a fan of ranking movies I see BUT this year will be the exception as The Hunt is my number 1 movie of the year, the one that has my Oscar and the one I hope wins.

Strongly suggest you watch movie as film is fantastic but watching Mads is truly, truly an awesome experience I highly recommend to many people that call their profession "actor".

Germany: Zwei Leben (Two Lives) by Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas
Have not seen movie and yes, I am "dying" to see it especially because lead performances by Liv Ullman and none other than Juliane Köhler that many of you will remember from great Aimée & Jaguar. Film was not screened in major festivals but was a selection in 2013 Göteborg Film Festival running for the International Debut Award.

It is the second film by Maas (documentary filmmaker) and the first by Kaufman (cinematographer) and know their work as have seen Maas Liv Ullmann documentary and many movies were Judith Kaufmann was the cinematographer like 4 minutes, When We Leave, Unveiled and more.

Update: film has extraordinary cinematography, good performances more Scandinavian than German style, an interesting story told in slowish pace but believe is not Oscar worthy material as is entertaining but not much else.

Hong Kong: 一代宗师 Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Kar Wai Wong
Some of you know my blind love for Wong Kar Wai and his master filmmaker style so masterful developed in films like In the Mood for Love, 2046, Chungking Express and more; add that I still believe that the greatest actor in the world is Tony Leung (thanks to his extraordinary performances in Wong Kar Wai's films and other directors) and you have an idea of the expectations I had for this film. Perhaps my expectations were too high but film doesn't look/feel much like great Wong Kar Wai (perhaps the close film style is Ashes of Time) so in a way I was disappointed but not much as film is absolutely outstanding when you think cinematography, truly awesome visual pleasure.

Still film has already won 14 awards plus more nominations, including Ziyi Zhang winning Best Performance by an Actress at 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best Cinematography in 2013 Golden Horse Awards where also won the Audience Award. Worth watching but try to minimize the effect the director may have in your expectations.

Hungary: A nagy füzet (The Notebook) by János Szász
Not really interested in watching as many will remember that do not enjoy war movies and need someone/something to force me to perhaps consider watching.

Still seems that film has impressive cinematography and already collected accolades at 2013 Karlovy Vary where won the Crystal Globe and Label Europa Cinema awards.


Italy: La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino
My second favorite actor in the world is Toni Servillo and see everything with him, not really a fan of the director (but loved Il Divo with Servillo) and had no expectations. This film gave me the greatest surprise this year as never, never imagined Sorrentino could make a movie so decadent that gave me the chills as almost felt I was watching early Fellini. One of the best five movies this year and one that already won great accolades from being in competition at 2013 Cannes to win several awards in 2013 European Film Awards including best film and best actor. If you ever loved (and miss) great Italian cinema then this film is must be seen for you.

Palestine: Omar by Hany Abu-Assad
Not in my film watching queue (even when won 2013 Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize) but called my attention when won Best Film at 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Surely will not be easy to see but accolades suggest that maybe story has something different, especially when story has been told too many times in many different ways/points-of-view. Will watch.

2013 Prix Louis-Delluc Winners

Today the jury members of the most prestigious award in France had their annual meeting at Fouquet in Paris with Gilles Jacob, Cannes Festival president, announcing that this year winner is extremely well deserved and is the second Delluc that Kechiche wins in only five years, as his first was for excellent La Graine et le mulet in 2007 and now for La Vie d'Adèle.

Prix Louis Delluc for Best Film: La Vie d'Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Color), Abdellatif Kechiche

For reference these were the films considered for the award.

Elle s'en va by Emmanuelle Bercot
Jimmy P. by Arnaud Desplechin
Camille Claudel 1915 by Bruno Dumont
Mon âme par toi guérie by François Dupeyron
9 mois ferme by Albert Dupontel
Le Passé by Asghar Farhadi
L'inconnu du lac by Alain Guiraudie
La vie d'Adèle by Abdellatif Kechiche

Prix Louis Delluc for Best First Film: Vandal, Hélier Cisterne

To read the news in French go here.

7th Asia Pacific Screen Award Winners

A few minutes ago the awards ceremony took place in Brisbane, Australia and unfortunately was not able to watch it live, but will check video later as previous editions have been entertaining in a very serious/elegant/cultural way which for me is refreshing as most award ceremonies try to entertain with humor and not always succeed with me.

Winners are in *BLUE. Besides the awards in the main category there were also accolades for the following films:

Jury Grand Prize
Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bangladesh and
Ritesh Batra for The Lunchbox, India, France and Germany

UNESCO Award: The Painting Pool, Maziar Miri, Iran

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11/12
Yesterday Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announce the nominees for this year APSA's with 39 films from 21 Asia Pacific countries and areas vying for the region's highest accolade in film; for the first time nominations have gone to films from Bangladesh, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Omar by Hany Abu-Assad received the most nominations with a total of three followed by Like Father, Like Son, The Old Man, My Sweet Pepperland, Television and The Past with two each.

Best Feature Film
Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You), Prasanna Vithanage, Sri Lanka
*Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, Palestine
Le Passé (The Past), Asghar Farhadi, France and Italy
Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son), Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan
Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bangladesh
The Turning, Australia (Anthology with 18 directors of 18 shorts)

Best Children's Feature Film
*Beom-joe So-nyeon (Juvenile Offender), Korea
Lamma Shoftak (When I Saw You), Palestine and Jordan
Shopping, New Zealand
Tabidachi no Shima Uta – Jugo no Haru (Leaving on the 15th Spring), Japan
Wadjda, Saudi Arabia and Germany

Best Animated Feature Film
Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (The World of Goopi and Bagha), India
Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), Japan
*Koo! Kin-Dza-Dza, Russia
Sa-i-bi (The Fake), Korea
Sakasama no Patema (Patema Inverted), Japan

Best Documentary Film
*The Act of Killing, Denmark, Norway and UK
Alam Laysa Lana (A World Not Ours), Lebanon, UK, UAE, Denmark and Palestine
Frihet Bakom Galler (No Burqas Behind Bars), Sweden, Japan, Netherlands and Denmark
Menstrual Man, Singapore and India
Shomrei Hasaf (The Gatekeepers), Israel, France, Germany and Belgium

Achievement in Directing
*Anthony Chen for Ilo Ilo, Singapore
Emir Baigazin for Uroki Garmonii (Harmony Lessons), Kazakhstan, Germany and France
Hiner Saleem for My Sweet Pepperland, Iraqi Kurdistan, France and Germany
Hirokazu Kore-eda for Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son), Japan
Shahram Mokri for Mahi Va Gorbeh (Fish and Cat), Iran

Best Screenplay
Asghar Farhadi for Le Passé (The Past)
Denis Osokin for Nebesnye Ženy Lugovykh Mari (Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari), Russia
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Anisul Haque for Television, Bangladesh
*Ritesh Batra for The Lunchbox, India, France and Germany
U-Wei Bin Hajisaari for Hanyut (Almayer’s Folly), Malaysia

Achievement in Cinematography
Ehab Assal for Omar, Palestine
*Lu Yue for Yi Jiu Si Er (Back to 1942), China
Mandy Walker for Tracks, Australia and UK
Murat Alyev for Shal (The Old Man), Kazahstan
Rajeev Ravi for Monsoon Shootout, India, UK and Netherlands

Best Performance by an Actress
Ayça Damgacı in Yozgat Blues, Turkey and Germany
Golshifteh Farahani in My Sweet Pepperland, Iraqi Kurdistan, France and Germany
Negar Javaherian in The Painting Pool, Iran
Whirimako Black in Tuakiri Huna (White Lies), New Zealand
*Zhang Ziyi in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster), Hong Kong and China

Best Performance by an Actor
Aaron Pedersen in Mystery Road, Australia
Adam Bakri in Omar, Palestine
*Lee Byung-hun in Masquerade, Korea
Tatsuya Nakadai in Nippon no higeki (Japan's Tragedy), Japan
Yerbolat Toguzakov in Shal (The Old Man), Kazahkstan

Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the 2013 APSA International Jury, headed by esteemed Indian screenwriter and director Shyam Benegal, who will lead a group of accomplished Jury members including Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, “Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema” actress of stage and screen Hon Dr Malani Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee. The International Jury can also, at its discretion, present a further prize: the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated narrative feature films are eligible.

The 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony will be held in Brisbane’s historic City Hall on Thursday 12 December.

2013 Lux Prize Winner

A few minutes ago in the European Parliament session the winner of the LUX Prize was announced and is none other than Belgium's submission to Oscar, The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix Van Groeningen. An excellent drama that recommend as must be seen for those that enjoy great European cinema and strongly suggest you do not get put off by the Alabama Monroe title in some countries nor by the American music in film as the first is one character name and the second is there but absolutely fits narrative.


EP President Martin Schulz congratulated the winner and all the finalists: "By telling stories about who we are or who we could be, European films help to create a cultural consciousness for Europe. Film makers do not need us, European politicians, but we politicians need you, the film makers. Stories and emotions can help to develop identity. European films boost a feeling of togetherness in Europe."

Even though MEPs have already picked their favourite film, the public can still vote for theirs on the LUX prize website or on the LUX Prize Facebook page. One lucky winner will be invited to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in June/July 2014 where the 10 films competing for next year’s prize will be revealed. To vote go here.

The following news were also announced today: Starting 8 March 2014, French/German broadcaster ARTE will make the film "Die Fremde" by Feo Aladag available online for FREE for three months. The film, which won the LUX Prize in 2010, will be available in all 24 EU languages. If you haven't seen it strongly suggest you do.

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8/27
From the ten films chosen to become the 2013 Official Selection that were announced during the 2013 Karlovy Vary fest, three films continue as finalists for the award that will be announced during a formal sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on December 11th. The three films were recently announced and will be screened during Venice fest in the Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori) section.

For the first time a British film has been shortlisted and it is the second time an Italian director is running for the award which is none other than Valeria Golino's directorial debut.

Miele (Honey), Valeria Golino, France and Italy (Cannes Ecumenical Jury Award-special mention - Un Certain Regard)
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix Van Groeningen, Belgium (Winner of the Berlinale Audience Award)
The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnad, UK (Cannes Directors' Fortnight)

26th European Film Awards Winners

A nice to watch ceremony full of the very peculiar German humor that allowed us to learn the 2013 winners of this prestigious regional award that for the first time in several years coincide with my opinion (lol) as definitively agree that La Grande Bellezza is a movie that deserves great honors.

The homages to Pedro Almodovar and Catherine Deneuve were so different from each other but both were entertaining, especially watching the film clips collage that bring great memories from the long ago, not long ago and recent past. While Almodovar got the visit of most of his actors (no Penelope, Victoria, Carmen or Antonio) Deneuve got the most touching words from Wes Wenders, so touching that even I became emotional and can't help but to share that both homages were the highlight of the awards show for me.

Winners are in *BLUE. To read info for each movie go to Official site.

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11/9
A few minutes ago at the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy announced the nominations for this year. Most were expected and for me this year there is no big surprises among the nominees, unless you consider movies that I did not enjoyed and got nominations in categories that truly are not deserved, sigh.

Excellent The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen leads with five (5) nominations followed by awesome, opulent and truly decadent La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino with four nods (including one for great Toni Servillo, whom already won in my awards).

Please remember that the award calendar runs from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 and is the reason why the nominations have films from last year. Also, the films must have a director who was born in Europe or has a European passport and Europe has a geographical definition. The more than 2,900 EFA Members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on 7 December in Berlin.

There are a couple of new things this year, first EFA already announced the winners in Cinematography, Editing, Design, Costumes and Music & Sound, so listed here are the winners. Second, there is a new category: European Comedy to honor a genre that I do not particularly enjoy but can't deny that have seen half the nominated movies and well, yes, I enjoyed them!

European Film
The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy
Blancanieves, Pablo Berger, Spain and France
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
*La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino, Italy and France
Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color), Adellatif Kechiche, France

European Comedy
Los Amantes Pasajeros (I'm So Excited!), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Benvenuto Presidente! (Welcome Mr. President!), Riccardo Milani, Italy
*Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need), Susanne Bier, Denmark
Svecenikova Djeca (The Priest's Children), Vinko Brešan, Croatia and Serbia

European Director
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves
Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
Abdellatif Kechiche for La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Color),
François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer

European Actress
Kiera Knightley in Anna Karenina
*Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Barbara Sukowa in Hannah Arendt
Naomi Watts in Lo Imposible (The Impossible)
Luminita Gheorghiu in Pozitia Copilului (Child's Pose)

European Actor
Jude Law in Anna Karenina
Johan Heldenbergh in The Broken Circle Breakdown
Fabrice Luchini in Dans La Maison (In the House)
*Toni Servillo in La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty)
Tom Schilling in Oh Boy!

European Screenwriter
Tom Stoppard for Anna Karenina
Giuseppe Tornatore for The Best Offer
Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen for The Broken Circle Breakdown
*François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)
Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello for La Garnde Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI
Äta sova dö (Eat Sleep Die), Gabriela Pichler, Sweden
Call Girl, Mikael Marcimain, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Finland
Miele (Honey), valeria Golino, Italy and France
*Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany
La Plaga (The Plague), Neus Ballús, Spain

European Animated Feature Film
*The Congress, Ari Folman, Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France and Belgium
Jasmine, Alain Ughetto, France
Pinocchio, Enzo d'AIò, Italy, Luxembourg, France and Belgium

European Documentary
*The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Norway and UK
L'Escale (Stop-Over), Kaveh Bakhtiari, Switzerland and France
L'Image Manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh, France and Cambodia

European Short Film
Cut, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Germany, 12' (Vila do Conde nominee)
*Dood Van Een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet, Belgium and France, 20' (Valladolid nominee)
Houses with Small Windows, Bülent Öztürk, Belgium, 15' (Venice nominee)
La Lampe au Beurre de Yak (Butter Lamp), Hu Wei, France and China, 15' (Drama nominee)
Letter, Sergei Loznitsa, Russia, 20' (documentary) (Krakow nominee)
Misterio (Mystery), Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 12' (Berlin nominee)
Morning, Cathy Brady, UK and Ireland, 21' (Cork nominee)
As Ondas (The Waves), Miguel Fonseca, Portugal, 22' (Ghent nominee)
Orbit Ever After, Jamie Stone, UK, 20' (Bristol nominee)
Skok (Jump), Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva, Bulgaria, 30' (Clermont-Ferrand nominee)
Sonntag 3 (Sunday 3), Jochen Kuhn, Germany, 14' (Tampere nominee)
A Story for the Modlins, Sergio Oksman, Spain, 26' (documentary) (Sarajevo nominee)
Though I Know The River Is Dry, Omar Robert Hamilton, Egypt, Palestine and UK, 20' (Rotterdam nominee)
Yaderni Wydhody (Nuclear Waste), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine, 25' (Grimstad nominee)
Zima, Christina Picchi, Russia, 12' (documentary) (Locarno nominee)

Winners already announced
Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award: Asaf Sudry for Lemale et Ha'Halal (Fill The Void), Israel
European Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Italy and France
European Production Designer: Sarah Greenwood for Anna Karenina, UK
European Composer: Ennio Morricone for The Best Offer, Italy
European Costume Designer: Paco Delgado for Blancanieves, Spain and France
European Sound Designer: Matz Müller and Erik Mischijew for Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith), Austria, Germany and France

As we already know Catherine Deneuve will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding body of work and Pedro Almodóvar gets the honorary award European Achievement in World Cinema for his outstanding body of work. Both will be honorary guests at the awards ceremony on December 7th in Berlin.

To read about each of the nominated films go here.

86th Academy Awards Visual Effects Shortlist

The Academy's Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist with 10 contenders that remain in the VFX Oscar race. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Thursday, January 9, 2014. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

Have seen most of the films but my instinct tells me that the movie that has much buzz is Gravity and buzz comes mainly for awesome visual effects. We can assume that Gravity is the top contender to win the category. Still lets take a look at each of the films visual effects and maybe we can consider another film to be a contender or maybe not.

Elysium
Director Neill Blomkamp reteamed with Vancouver-based visual effects house Imagine Engine (District 9) for his sci-fi epic. VFX vendors also included Industrial Light + Magic, MPC, Method, Whiskytree, Embassy, 32Ten Studio and Animatrix. Believe that visual effects even if are awesome look/feel more "traditional".



Gravity
Movie has too many groundbreaking visual effects that yes, will transform -again- the visual effects industry that today produces effects that look more real than ever before. Impossible to show all but take a look a this example I chose that also is analyzed in the video.





The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
In my opinion film has excellent but "traditional" visual effects that nowadays seem to be taken for granted, especially when some criticize some characters as according to them look less "real" than those in video games. I tend to agree. There are many videos with the many visual effects but here is one from the VFX company.



Iron Man 3
The way that visual effects are these days is that we definitely are the can-do department, said Chris Townsend. Comments the overall VFX supe on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, reflecting on the crucial role his department played in bringing the film to the big screen. Along with visual effects producer Mark Soper, Townsend co-ordinated 17 studios across the globe and more than 2,000 shots for the Shane Black-directed picture. Here is a 27 minutes short documentary featuring some of the visual effects.



The Lone Ranger
Walt Disney visual effects seem to me VERY traditional but of course, all look real while watching movie. Check video with one sequence.



Oblivion
Did not enjoy much movie but yep is another with lots of VFX's, some quite innovative. Check the video about creating the world of Oblivion.



Pacific Rim
Definitively not my kind of movie but can see the amazing visual effects that in my opinion tend to be of the more "traditional" kind. Some examples.




Star Trek Into Darkness
Many companies involved with VFX's but here is a video from one of them. Again, great visual effects but nothing outstandingly remarkable.



Thor: The Dark World
Lots of "practical" visual effects plus the ones done in computers to create a fantastic world that seem could be real.



World War Z
More "traditional/practical" visual effects as seen in first video plus some of the computer generated that show how "intelligent" animation has become, as seen in the second video.

86th Academy Awards Documentary Shortlist

From the one hundred forty-seven films that originally qualified in the category, fifteen (15) will advance in the voting process in which Documentary Branch members will select the five nominees.

Have seen only two, excellent Sarah Polley's opus Stories We Tell and a documentary that mesmerized me because I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing while impressing me as there is nothing shown but you intensively feel all the horrors, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. There are too many American documentaries for my taste but was good news to discover that Lucy Walker has a new documentary which perhaps will see even if know that the story is VERY different to her previous work, and unfortunately there is not much more that calls my attention but believe that the two mentioned above have high possibilities to be nominated and maybe one will win.

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous and Christine Cynn, Denmark, Norway and UK

A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death squad leaders to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.



The Armstrong Lie, Alex Gibney, USA

A documentary chronicling sports legend Lance Armstrong's improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace.



Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite,USA

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.



The Crash Reel, Lucy Walker, USA

Fifteen years of verite footage show the epic rivalry between half-pipe legends Shaun White and Kevin Pearce, childhood friends who become number one and two in the world leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, pushing one another to ever more dangerous tricks, until Kevin crashes on a Park City half-pipe, barely surviving. As Kevin recovers from his injury, Shaun wins Gold. Now all Kevin wants to do is get on his snowboard again, even though medics and family fear this could kill him. We also celebrate Sarah Burke who crashed in Park City and died January 19, 2012.



Cutie and the Boxer, Zachary Heinzerling, USA

For years, Ushio Shinohara has been one of the leading, and most underappreciated, alternative artists in Japan and New York City with an wildly esoteric style. For many of those years, his wife, Noriko, has been a faithful companion to this idiosyncratic man, but grew want to be more. This film covers the relationship of these special couple as Ushio struggles for commercial success on his own terms. Meanwhile, we also follow Noriko pursuing her own artistic vision with her semi-autobiographical line art project that reveals much about her own soul as eloquently as her husband's work.



Dirty Wars, Rick Rowley, USA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen

Dirty Wars follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the hidden world of America's covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond. Part action film and part detective story, Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time. What begins as a report on a deadly U.S. night raid in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly turns into a global investigation of the secretive and powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). As Scahill digs deeper into the activities of JSOC, he is pulled into a world of covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. In military jargon, JSOC teams "find, fix, and finish" their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the "kill list," including U.S. citizens.



First Cousin Once Removed, Alan Berliner, USA

This is filmmaker Alan Berliner's intimate portrait of his distant cousin, friend and former mentor Edwin Honig, who is living out the last years of his life with Alzheimer's. Honig was once a prominent and highly successful poet, translator, literary critic and university lecturer. In the final stage of his disease, however, he has lost almost all connection with his own past, his family and his personal identity. But sometimes in conversation his poetic soul flickers back to life again, producing beautiful moments in the film. This sensitive documentary tackles Edwin Honig's illness with compassion and humor, describing the story of his life with the same raw candor that characterized his poetry. Conversations with friends and family members paint a fragmentary picture of a life marked by tragedy, love, loss, irony and literary daring. Together, Honig's personal history and the study of his mental decline are more than the sum of their parts: this is a film essay on the function of memory and the importance of our ability to remember and forget.



God Loves Uganda, Roger Ross Williams, USA

A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America's Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting sexual immorality and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law.



Life According to Sam, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix

'Life According to Sam' is about one family's courageous fight to save their only son from a rare and fatal disease, progeria. The average age of death from progeria is 13, there is no treatment, and no cure. Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns are set on changing this. When their son Sam, now 16 years old, was diagnosed with progeria at age two, doctors told Leslie and Scott to enjoy Sam while they could. They refused to believe this was the answer. In less than a decade, their advances have led to identifying the gene at fault, creating the first drug trials for treatment, and revealing the amazing discovery that progeria is linked to the aging process in all of us.




Pokazatelnyy protsess: Istoriya Pussy Riot (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Russia and UK

Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial in a case that has gripped the nation and the world beyond, three young artists or the society they live in?



Al Midan (The Square), Jehane Noujaim, Egypt and USA

'The Square' is an intimate observational documentary that tells the real story of the ongoing struggle of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of six very different protesters. Starting in the tents of Tahrir in the days leading up to the fall of Mubarak, we follow our characters on a life-changing journey through the euphoria of victory into the uncertainties and dangers of the current 'transitional period' under military rule, where everything they fought for is now under threat or in balance.



Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley, Canada

In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of their mother, who departed too soon, leaving a trail of unanswered questions. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy and fiercely loving. Stories We Tell explores the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the ...



Tim’s Vermeer, Teller, USA

Inventor Tim Jenison seeks to understand the painting techniques used by Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer.



20 Feet from Stardom, Morgan Neville, USA

The backup singer exists in a strange place in the pop music world; they are always in the shadow of the feature artists even when they are in front of them in concert while they provide a vital foundation for the music. Through interviews with veterans and concert footage, the history of these predominately African-American singers is explored through the rock era. Furthermore, special focus is given to special stand outs who endeavored to make a living in the art burdened with a low profile and more personal career frustrations, especially those who faced the very different challenge of singing in the spotlight themselves.



Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger, USA

A moving portrait of the acclaimed war photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington by his RESTREPO co-director - journalist Sebastian Junger.

86th Academy Awards Live Action Shorts Shortlist

From 120 films that originally qualified in the category here are the 10 that advance in the voting process for an opportunity to get a nomination.

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in December.

Only one really calls my attention for the images, Helium but know story will be hard to see; perhaps worth watching are the shorts from Canada and UK.

The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Shorts in alphabetical order.

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me), Esteban Crespo, Spain,23 minutes

The short film tells the story of Paula y Kaney, two characters -an African child and a Spanish woman- who don´t have anything in common, but who will unite their lives due to a gunshot. Kaney is a child soldier from an African country. Along with many other children, he obeys a man´s order that has become a father, the General of the Rebel Army. Paula (Alejandra Lorente) is a Spanish volunteer worker who goes to Africa with his boyfriend, Juanjo (Gustavo Salmerón) with the goal of helping and rescuing the child soldier who live there. At a border post Paula and Kaney meet for the first time and that is the starting point of this dramatic story, in a fear, violence, terror and redemption scenario.




TRAILER Aquel no era yo from quieneslala on Vimeo.

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand, France, 29 minutes
Grand Prix winner at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

A young boy pretends going to school and hides under a small bridge. A teenager in tears waits at a bus stop. A woman picks them up and drives them to the parking lot of a supermarket. They step out of the car. The woman takes a big trash bag out of the trunk. All three rush inside the store...

Making of

Tournage AQDTP from bertrand PICAULT on Vimeo.

Dva (Two), Mikey Nedimovic, Croatia and Germany, 26 minutes

Croatia, 1993. Two marksmen - Robert, a Croat, and Stojan, a Serb - wander aimlessly through the desolate countryside. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the enemies immediately try to shoot each other. The first 'click', however, is not coming from a gun barrel, but from the ground beneath them: the enemies stepped on a landmine at the same time. One foot in the grave, they are involuntarily bound together by common destiny - the death of one means the death of the other. But not just their apparent differences make it difficult for them to overcome their dilemma. Nature, too, offers some challenges to test the soldiers' solidarity and survival skills.

Helium, Anders Walter, Denmark, 23 minutes

"Helium" is the story of the young boy Alfred who is seriously ill in the hospital. He becomes good friends with the eccentric cleaning man Enzo and together they develop a magical fantasy world named Helium.



Kush, Shubhashish Bhutiani, India, 20 minutes
Winner of Best Short Film at 2013 Venice Film Festival Horizons Award.

Inspired by a true story: In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, causing anti-Sikh riots to erupt throughout the country. A teacher travelling back from a field trip with her class of 10-year-old students struggles to protect Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, from the growing violence around him.



Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen, Finland, 7 minutes

A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it’s best to take care of everything herself.



Record/Play, Jesse Atlas, USA, 11 minutes

A malfunctioning cassette tape captures more than just audio.

Teaser

RECORD/PLAY: TEASER from jesse atlas on Vimeo.


RECORD/PLAY from jesse atlas on Vimeo.

Throat Song, Miranda de Pencier, Canada, 15 minutes

Throat Song takes place in the small Arctic town of Iqaluit, Nunavut. In the snowy and mystic landscape of the Arctic, Ippik, a young Inuit woman, is caught up in an abusive relationship with her alcoholic husband. When Ippik gets a job with the Department of Justice, prepping victims of crimes for court, she connects with others in her community who are also suffering from pains of abuse. In hearing their stories, Ippik finds the strength to leave her husband and discovers that her voice is not yet entirely diminished.



Tiger Boy, Gabriele Mainetti, Italy, 20 minutes
2013 Nastro d'argento Best Short Film winner.

Matteo, a nine years old kid, builds a mask identical to the one of his hero: a wrestler of a roman suburb called The Tiger. Once the mask is on, Matteo never wants to take it off. What simply appears as a tantrum is in reality a call for help that nobody seems to hear.



The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill, UK, 13 minutes

Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr Voorman, a prisoner with a peculiar affliction: he believes he is a god. The Doctor must decide on the sanity of Mr Voorman - is he a faker or a lunatic? Diagnose him insane and they can ship him off to the asylum. But before making a decision, the Doctor has several questions in relation to Voorman's claims: why would a god choose to be straitjacketed in a prison, is there a way he can validate his boast and what has any of this got to do with Belgium?

86th Academy Awards Animated Shorts Shortlist

A few days ago the Academy announced that from the fifty-six (56) films that qualified, ten (10) Animated Shorts will advance in the voting process.

After watching all available materials my first impression is that Feral and Mr. Hublot are the ones that absolutely call my attention for the story and the execution.

The following are the shortlisted films.

Feral, Daniel Sousa, director, and Dan Golden, music and sound design (Daniel Sousa), USA, 13 minutes
A wild boy is found in the woods by a solitary hunter and brought back to civilization. Alienated by a strange new environment, the boy tries to adapt by using the same strategies that kept him safe in the forest.



Get a Horse!, Lauren MacMullan, director, and Dorothy McKim, producer (Walt Disney Feature Animation), USA, 6 minutes
Get a Horse! begins traditionally enough: Mickey and friends are enjoying a ride through the great outdoors when they are waylaid by antagonist Peg-Leg Pete. Till this point, the picture mimics the look and feel of vintage, Steamboat Willie-era Disney: black and white, simple shapes, and a rubbery consistency to the limbs and movements of the characters. This portion of the short features hand-drawn animation supervised by veteran Eric Goldberg, who designed the Genie in 1992's Aladdin, and the picture is intentionally degraded with artifacts and filters to give it a vibe of authentically aged film stock. Completing the illusion is Walt Disney himself as the voice of Mickey Mouse, a feat accomplished by piecing together audio recordings from studio archives. Shortly after Pete arrives on the scene, the fourth wall is broken, and things really get interesting. As Mickey and his cohorts jump off the screen, out of their black-and-white world, they dive into a widescreen universe of color where they become fully realized as CG-animated characters. A series of chase scenes finds them quickly alternating between the two realities, with the hand-drawn and CG elements deftly mixing in a surprisingly seamless way.

Gloria Victoria, Theodore Ushev, director (National Film Board of Canada), Canada, 7 minutes
Recycling elements of surrealism and cubism, this animated short by Theodore Ushev focuses on the relationship between art and war. Propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony (No. 7), the film presents imagery of combat fronts and massacres, leading us from Dresden to Guernica, from the Spanish Civil War to Star Wars. It is at once a symphony that serves the war machine, that stirs the masses, and art that mourns the dead, voices its outrage and calls for peace.

Gloria Victoria par Theodore Ushev, Office national du film du Canada

Hollow Land (Terre d'écueil), Uri Kranot and Michelle Kranot, directors (Dansk Tegnefilm, Les Films de l’Arlequin and the National Film Board of Canada), Denmark, Canada and France, 14 minutes

With their old bathtub in tow, a displaced couple arrives in a new land, where all is not as they expected it to be. Awaiting the birth of their first child, and in their effort to adjust to an oddly oppressive environment, they are challenged by cultural/gender roles and customs. “Hollow Land” is a brilliant animated film that captures the disruptions, and corrosive anxieties that are part of daily life for so many immigrants, refugees and misfits around the world. Asburd, dark and awkardly playful; it is an insightful story about humans.




Watch full short here.

The Missing Scarf, Eoin Duffy, director, and Jamie Hogan, producer (Belly Creative Inc.), Ireland, 7 minutes

On a quest to find his missing scarf, Albert the squirrel unearths problems far beyond his own.


The Missing Scarf – Teaser from Eoin Duffy on Vimeo.

Mr. Hublot, Laurent Witz, director, and Alexandre Espigares, co-director (Zeilt Productions), Luxembourg and France, 11 minutes

Mr Hublot is a withdrawn, idiosyncratic character with OCD, scared of change and the outside world. Robot Pet's arrival turns his life upside down: he has to share his home with this very invasive companion...




「九十九」 Tsukumo (Possessions), Shuhei Morita, director (Sunrise Inc.), Japan, 14 minutes

One night in the 18th Century, deep in the mountains, a man loses his way and comes across a small shrine. As he enters, the space transforms into a room of a different world. (Short is part of Katsuhiro Otomo and Sunrise's anthology Short Peace at Annecy film Festival)



Requiem for Romance, Jonathan Ng, director (Kungfu Romance Productions Inc.), Canada, 8 minutes

A modern-day couple’s secret love affair comes to a bittersweet end during an evening phone call. Cell phone static creates distance between them as they anguish over details of their relationship. But the visuals of the film reveal something entirely different: the epic re-imagining of their relationship set in feudal China, where family influence, cultural pressures and their lust for adventure makes more sense. Coming this spring, love goes to war over art.



Room on the Broom, Max Lang and Jan Lachauer, directors (Magic Light Pictures), UK, 25 minutes

To the annoyance of her cat a kindly witch allows a dog,a bird and a frog who have helped her retrieve things she has lost to ride on her broomstick,making it top heavy. The broom is destroyed by a fire-breathing dragon who threatens to eat the witch but the creatures band together to impersonate a monster and save her. As a result she fashions a luxurious new broom with seats on which they can all ride comfortably.



Watch full short here.

Subconscious Password, Chris Landreth, director (National Film Board of Canada with the participation of Seneca College Animation Arts Centre and Copperheart Entertainment), Canada, 11 minutes

In this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe - forgetting somebody’s name - as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try (and try, and try) to prompt Charles to remember the name. Finally, he realizes he will simply have to surrender himself to his predicament.

Subconscious Password by Chris Landreth, National Film Board of Canada

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

86th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Submissions - Final

Yesterday the Academy published the final list and well, was a great surprise to find seventy-six (76) submissions to the foreign-language category which is a new record that believe will be hard to surpass. Nevertheless all three movies I was supposed to add yesterday are in list plus 2 more, one from Chad and another from Azerbaijan. No matter what category pundits say, it is a great honor for a film to be designed as the nation representative in the most popular/famous awards in the world and my wish is that awards TV show producers realize that a few extra minutes for the category will mean "something" to the millions that watch the show outside USA.

There are some significant changes from what was announced and what is in final AMPAS list. The first and most significant is Czech Republic submission is NO longer Agnieszka Holland's mini-series and has been substituted with a film by Jiri Menzel. The other is the film from Lebanon which is now by director Lara Saba. Post with female directors will be fixed by eliminating film from Czech Republic and adding film from Lebanon. Last I'm a bit surprised that the Swiss submission was accepted as had the impression that there was too much English but seems was just an impression.

The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and televised live on the ABC Television Network.

We should expect that about eight days before the nominations (first/second week of January 2014) AMPAS will make the announcement of the shortlist of nine.

All festivals without a date are from 2013. Blue identifies female directors.

Afghanistan: ژمه Wajma (An Afghan Love Story), Barmak Akram (Sundance Screenwriting award)
Albania: Agon, Robert Budina
Argentina: Wakolda (The German Doctor), Lucía Puenzo (Cannes Un Certain Regard)
Australia: The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt (Berlinale Crystal Bear Generation Kplus and Tribeca)
Austria: Die Wand (The Wall), Julian Pölsler (Berlinale12)
Azerbaijan: Çölçü (Steppe Man), Shamil Aliyev

Bangladesh: টেলিভিশন (Television), Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Belgium: The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen (Berlinale)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Epizoda u životu berača željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), Danisa Tanovića (Berlinale Jury Grand Prix winner)
Brazil: O Som ao Redor (Neighbouring Sounds), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Rotterdam 2012)
Bulgaria: Цветът на хамелеона Cvetat Na Hameleona (The Color of the Chameleon), Emil Hristov (Stockholm, Thessaloniki, Toronto FF)

Cambodia: L'image manquante (The Missing Picture), Rithy Panh (documentary) (Cannes Un Certain Regard winner)
Canada: Gabrielle, Louise Archambault (Locarno Audience Award)
Chad: GriGris, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Cannes)
Chile: Gloria, Sebastián Lelio (Berlinale)
China: 一九四二 Yi jiu si er (Back to 1942), Xiaogang Feng (Rome FF)
Colombia: La Playa DC, Juan Andrés Arango Garcia (Cannes 2012 Un Certain Regard)
Croatia: Halimin put (Halima's Path), Arsen A. Ostojic (2012 Tallinn and Pula)
Czech Republic: Donšajni (The Don Juans aka Skirt Chasers), Jirí Menzel (Montreal WFF)

Denmark: Jagten (The Hunt), Thomas Vinterberg (Cannes 2012)
Dominican Republic: ¿Quién manda? (Who's the Boss), Ronny Castillo

Ecuador: Mejor No Hablar (De Ciertas Cosas) (The Porcelain Horse), Javier Andrade (Warsaw IFF)
Egypt: الشتا إللى فات El sheita elli fat (Winter of Discontent), Ibrahim El-Batout (Stockholm and Dubai IFF 2012)
Estonia: Free range/Ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest (Free Range), Veiko Õunpuu

Finland: Lärjungen (The Disciple), Ulrika Bengts (Montreal World FF)
France: Renoir, Gilles Bourdos (Cannes 2012 Un Certain Regard)

Georgia: გრძელი ნათელი დღეები Grzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom), Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß (Won Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film at SarajevoFF, Berlinale, Hong Kong FF)
Germany: Zwei Leben (Two Lives), Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas
Greece: Το αγόρι τρώει το φαγητό του πουλιού To Agori Troei to Fagito tou Pouliou (Boy Eating The Bird's Food) by Ektoras Lygtizos. (Karlovy Vary Festival)

Hong Kong: 一代宗师 Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster), Kar Wai Wong (Berlinale)
Hungary: A nagy füzet (The Notebook), János Szász, (Crystal Globe for Best Film at 2013 Karlovy Vary)

Iceland: Hross í oss (Of Horses and Men), Benedikt Erlingsson (San Sebastian IFF)
India: Gujarati (The Good Road), Gyan Correa (Biennale Venice Days)
Indonesia: Sang Kiai, Rako Prijanto
Iran: Le passé (The Past), Asghar Farhadi (Cannes)
Israel: בית לחם (Bethlehem), Yval Adler
Italy: La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino (Cannes)

Japan: 舟を編む Fune wo amu (The Great Passage), Yûya Ishii

Kazakhstan: Шал Shal (Old Man aka Shal), Ermek Tursunov

Latvia: Mammu, es tevi mīlu (Mother, I Love You), Janis Nords (Berlinale Grand Prix Generation Kplus)
Lebanon: قصة ثواني Blind Intersections, Lara Saba (Dubai FF)
Lithuania: Pokalbiai rimtomis temomis (Conversations on Serious Topics), Giedre Beinoriūte (documentary)
Luxembourg: Doudege Wénkel (Angle Mort) (Blind Spot), Christophe Wagner

Mexico: Heli, Amat Escalante (Cannes)
Moldova: Toti Copiii Domnului (All God's Children), Adrian Popovici
Montenegro: As pik – loša sudbina (Ace of Spades - Bad Destiny), Draško Đurović (Sarajevo FF)
Morocco: يا خيل الله Les chevaux de Dieu (Horses of God), Nabil Ayouch (Cannes 2012)

Nepal: सुनगाभा Soongava (Soongava: Dance of the Orchids), Subarna Thapa (Montreal World Film Festival)
Netherlands: Borgman, Alex van Warmerdam (Cannes)
New Zealand: Tuakiri Huna (White Lies), Dana Rotberg
Norway: Jeg er din (I Am Yours), Iram Haq

Pakistan: زندہ بھاگ Zinda Bhaag, Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi
Palestine: Omar, Hany Abu-Assad (Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize winner)
Peru: El Limpiador (The Cleaner), Adrián Saba (San Sebastian IFF 2012)
Philippines: Transit, Hannah Espia (Pusan IFF)
Poland: Walesa. Czlowiek z nadziei (Walesa. Man of Hope), Andrzej Wajda (Biennale)
Portugal: Linhas de Wellington (Lines of Wellington), Valeria Sarmiento (Biennale 2012)

Romania: Poziţia Copilului (Child's Pose), Călin Peter Netzer, (Golden Bear for Best Film at 2013 Berlinale)
Russia: Сталинград (Stalingrad), Fedor Bondarchuk

Saudi Arabia: وجدة‎ Wadjda, Haifaa Al-Mansour (Biennale 2012 and Rotterdam IFF)
Serbia: Кругови Krugovi (Circles), Srdan Golubović (Berlinale and Sundance)
Singapore: 爸媽不在家 Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen (Camera d'Or Cannes)
Slovakia: Môj pes Killer (My Dog Killer), Mira Fornay (Winner of Tiger Award at Rotterdam IFF)
Slovenia: Razredni sovražnik (Class Enemy), Rok Bicek (Biennale Critics' Week)
South Africa: Die Vier Hoeke (Four Corners), Ian Gabriel
South Korea: 범죄소년 Beom-joe-so-nyeon (Juvenile Offender), Yi-kwan Kang (Tokyo IFF)
Spain: 15 años y un día (15 Years and One Day), Gracia Querejeta (Malaga Golden Biznaga winner)
Sweden: Äta Sova Dö (Eat Sleep Die), Gabriella Pichler (Biennale12)
Switzerland: More Than Honey, Markus Imhoof (documentary) (Viennale)

Taiwan: 失魂 (Soul), Mong-Hong Chung
Thailand: เคาท์ดาวน์ (Countdown), Nattawut Poonpiriya
Turkey: Kelebeğin Rüyası (The Butterfly's Dream), Yilmaz Erdogan

UK: Metro Manila, Sean Ellis (Sundance FF)
Ukraine: Параджанов Paradjanov, Serge Avedikian and Olena Fetisova (Karlovy Vary IFF)
Uruguay: Anina, Alfredo Soderguit (Berlinale and BAFICI Audience Award winner)

Venezuela: Brecha en el Silencio (Breach in the Silence), Luis and Andrés Rodríguez

Watch trailers plus info @MOC

News

9/7/13 It's the second time that New Zealand sends a movie to Oscar.
9/13/13 It's the FIRST time ever that Saudi Arabia sends a movie to Oscar and more, it is directed by a woman. (last is sic from Twitter) By the way, there are NO movie theaters in Saudi Arabia, they are forbidden; so to watch film has to be only on TV or DVD.
9/18/13 According to today's news Vietnam is NOT sending film this year.
9/23/13 Macedonia is NOT sending film this year.
10/7 It's the FIRST time ever that Moldova sends a movie to Oscar and is the first time that Montenegro submits film as an independent country.

Map works perfectly in Chrome. Other browsers might not show the trailer -sometimes-.  With all new Google changes I can confirm that if you have Windows 8 you will NOT see anything embed to Google Maps, no matter what browser you use.  Shame, but will finish map with all the info and seems will be the last one I make.


View 86th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Submissions in a larger map

My Comments

September 26
Next Tuesday at 5pm PT is the category deadline and less than one week before we already have fifty-eight (58) films submitted to Oscar 2014. There are a few countries that still have to announce their submission like China, Israel, Uruguay, Iran, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Indonesia, Malaysia and maybe more countries. But in my opinion the Oscar winner finally was submitted today as is the movie that I am giving My Oscar this year, Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt.

I am as passionate about The Hunt as was last year with Amour but my passion is not blind and know that Academy members tend to prefer less controversial story subjects; but if they wish to reward an excellent director that created a tense true masterpiece with out of the ordinary actors' performances -which is what movies should be all about- then they have to recognize that this film fits their high standards no matter the story it tells.

There are a few movies that have already seen and from those my huge surprise comes from a territory that decided to submit a film by a master filmmaker, Wong Kar-wai. The Grandmaster is a beautiful to watch movie that absolutely has Wong Kar-wai's particular visual style but unfortunately in story was missing a romance (any romance like love for martial arts) so to be honest film is not 100% excellent Wong Kar-wai nor is 100% "regular" martial arts film -which disappointed many viewers that enjoy the genre. Nevertheless is good to see a great director in the competition and I'm curious to find if film makes it to the shortlist of 9 and gets a nod.

Sometimes I wish the category will be more prominent within the televised show as imagine the possibility that in one "red carpet", in one venue at the same time you are able to see so many non-American outstanding actors together. Well, this year if a couple of films get nominated and reality was different, we could see together Liv Ullmann, Catherine Deneuve and Isabel Huppert. Wow! And of course, what I still consider the best actor in the world: Tony Leung. Still there is one actor that before did not care much about him but lately his interpretations have become quite outstanding, Mads Mikkelsen and as many of you know, I'm truly crazy about Toni Servillo performances. Can you imagine all these people together in one place at the same moment? Fantastic dream.

As most of the blog loyal readers know I like everything by Ashghar Farhadi and was hoping that France could submit his latest film, The Past. Unfortunately France went with a very "safe" bet when decided to send a film that tells the story of the Renoir father and son -if you do not know who is Auguste Renoir (the painter) son then let me tell you that Jean Renoir is one the most famous "Hollywood" directors of all times. Nevertheless today news tell us that Iran is considering 12 films and seems that The Past is being considered; as film has an Iranian strong intellectual property -the director- then perhaps qualifies.

Know that movie has to be extremely hard to watch because ALL Amat Escalante's previous films are but have seen all his movies and definitively I am looking forward to see his latest, Heli that in Mexico has been called "treason to the nation" -that's a sample of how unconventional film is.

So which movies have made me excited up to this moment? Jagten, Gloria, Zwei Leben, La Grande Belleza, Heli, Pozitia Copilului and well, yes, because trailer Stalingrad. From this list suspect that four will make the shortlist and only two will get a nod.

This is my last update, the next will be Final after the list is announced by the Academy at their official site which usually happens within the next fifteen days after deadline.

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September 10
As of today, Tuesday September 10th there are twenty two (22) countries that have announced films that will be consider for Foreign Language Film category in the 2014 Oscars edition. Out the 22 submissions only 3 films are by female directors and 2 are co directed by a woman; that is about one fourth of films made by women directors -which is about the average in festivals and general awards-. Let see if percentage remains the same, goes up or drops as more films are announced. As you can see in the list now female directors are highlighted in light orange for easier identification.

During the past week -after my first update- the most exciting, most expected and most not-a-surprise announcement came from Chile that is sending Belinale 2013 main competition nominated Gloria that gave lead actress, Paulina García, the Silver Bear for Best Actress plus director, Sebastián Lelio, the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas. Can't wait to see this film by Lelio that I'm sure will be as good if not better as his previous films.

Yesterday Spain's Academy announcedt their short list that usually has three films but this year there are four; have not seen any of the four films -and really do not call my attention- so have no idea of which could be their selection. But most annoying was the message that English-media sent to the world in which they announced that Almodovar's latest film was NOT in the shortlist. Seems that those that wrote article plus the many that in social media reacted to the news in a non-positive way, have NOT seen Almodovar's latest oeuvre which in my opinion is a great funny film that is very, very far away from Oscar material. I enjoyed a lot film as a dramedy that made me recall Almodovar's early work but being very objective film is not awards material but great plain old fashion entertainment.

That's it for this week let's hope that during the next day's more (interesting) films will be submitted to Oscar 2014.

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September 3
Up to the third day of September there are 16 countries that have already announced their official submission to Oscar 2014 in the category of Foreign Language Film. Last year a record was established when 71 countries submitted films and we know that have not been for the Iranian boycott then surely more submissions could have appeared.

This year there are early signs that a new record could be established as for the first time ever Montenegro submitted a film, Nepal submitted film after 15 years of absence, and has been announced that after a 50-year hiatus Pakistan will re-enter the race.

Not surprisingly the list contains movies that I have not seen yet but I'm looking forward to seen them during the next -not- calendar year. From the 16 already announced Nepal submission has become must be seen for me as well as the one from Turkey that from trailer seems to have the most beautiful cinematography; but also Germany's submission with Liv Ullmann is must be seen plus Austria's submission that has a story quite similar to the Summer TV hit Under The Dome, but in this story seems is one lonely women instead of a whole village isolated from the rest of the world.

For my regular readers is no surprise that up to this moment the film that I'm dying to see is the Romanian submission that won the Golden Bear at 2013 Berlinale. Talking about festivals this year decided to include in list the festival (s) were film was more successful so now is a bit easier to see how many festival movies are sent to Oscar.

Unfortunately seems that this year the 2013 Cannes Palme d'Or winner will NOT be screened in France before October 1st, 2013 so unless French distributor change their mind, film will NOT qualify for this year. The only chance film has is to qualify next year but with so many excellent films that France produces each year I wonder if film really would have an opportunity. Still the most incredible news were released the past week by the US Distributor, Sundance Selects, who plans to do an Oscar campaign as believes is a strong contender in categories other than best foreign language film. So, Adèle Exarchlopoulos and Léa Seydoux could be promoted for best and supporting actress categories but the biggest challenge within the Academy's acting branch is the conservative-leaning tastes that will not appreciate a NC-17 rated film with several graphic and extended sex scenes (lol). No film rated NC-17 has received an Oscar nomination in a major category, except Midnight Cowboy but that was rated X (LOL). Of course I'm talking about La Vie d'Adèle chapitres 1 & 2 also known as Le Bleu est une Couleur Chaude (Blue is the Warmest Color) by visual extraordinary and excellent/very peculiar storyteller Abdellatif Kechiche (remember La graine et le mulet and/or Vénus noire?).

Every year the most passionate film lovers come from India and Philippines and this year is no exception as they have already started to complain and loudly express their preferences about the film that each country will submit. Surely no matter what film will be chosen there will be a controversy.

This is it for this update, next week we will have more films to comment and more fresh news about this category in the Oscar race. Great.

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August15

Seems that I'm back with my favorite post which will start today, August 15. As we know the list will become the longest with (mostly) the best of each country cinema. Enjoy!