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!

86th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Submissions - Meet the Female Directors

October 12, 2013

The Academy published the list with 76 films that qualified to be considered for the foreign-language category and there are seventeen (17) female directors as even when one film by a film director was disqualified (Czech Republic) another film by a female director qualified (Lebanon). But as there are a record 76 submitted films, the proportion of female versus male directors goes down to 22% which is slightly lower than what usually goes on in most international cinema related events.

October 2, 2013
One day after the deadline we know that sixty-eight (68) films were announced as submission from a specific nation or territory; we still do not know if all films are going to be accepted but while we wait for the official AMPAS announcement let's review some relevant data. For starters there are seventeen (17) female directors that directed or co directed films that were submitted which "surprisingly" reflects the same proportion male-female from many festivals and cinema related events as 25% is about the ongoing average ratio.

Most interesting is to discover that several of the feature films are director's debut film or feature film, which is quite unusual as not many films/directors have the high honor of representing a nation in the most famous awards in the world. But more important is that several female directors are just beginning their career and we can expect them to become more masterful in the future.

No matter if they are starting their career or already have an established career almost all films have premiered in international festivals and some already have collected awards even when they are still traveling the festival circuit. So I would not be surprised if some will collect more honors in the few festivals that will close the year 2013.

These are the filmmakers that in 2013 are honored by having their film selected to represent a nation.

Haifaa Al-Mansour

Born in Saudi Arabia. Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive, vote or work with men but one woman has become the country's first filmmaker to direct a film in her homeland, a Kingdom that does not have movie theaters. The success of her short films in the Gulf and around the world has inspired a new movement of independent filmmaking in the Kingdom. Al Mansour is well known for penetrating the wall of silence surrounding the sequestered lives of Saudi women and providing a platform for their voices. Her debut feature film Wadja, besides surprisingly becoming Saudi Arabia's submission to 2014 Oscar, already has collected many international awards including several collateral awards at 2012 Biennale, the Dioraphte Award from 2013 Rotterdam fest and more. Many are predicting film could get a nomination but I'm thinking predictions come more from the story behind film than from the film itself.

Louise Archambault

Studied film production at Concordia University in Montreal, where she also completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in film. She cut her teeth as a sound trainee on the popular Quebec TV series “Lance et compte” and went on to work as a line producer on commercials before joining Roger Frappier’s Max Films, where she worked on such films as Manon Briand’s 2 secondes (1998). After continuing to work her way through the industry as a producer, assistant director, writer, cinematographer, on-set photographer and costume designer, she directed her third short film, Atomic Sake (1999), which won the 2000 Prix Jutra for Best Short Film and screened at more than one hundred film festivals worldwide.

Her first feature, Familia, opened the Canada First! programme at the 2005 Toronto fest and went on to share the Best Canadian First Feature Film award with Michael Mabott’s. Familia won the Claude Jutra Genie Award for Best Direction of a First Feature Film and earned seven other nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Direction and Screenplay. It was also named one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2005 by an independent, national panel of filmmakers, programmers, journalists and industry professionals.  Her second feature film, Gabrielle, won the Audience Award at Locarno and is Canada's 2014 Oscar entry.

Giedre Beinoriūte

Born in Vilnius, Lithuania and went to Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, Film and TV. Her work consists mainly of award winning short films and documentaries with perhaps her most international work being Gyveno senelis ir bobutė (Grandpa and Grandma) that collected honors all over the world. I am highly impressed with what I saw in Conversations on Serious Topics trailer which made me sure that documentary will be very interesting to see. Film is Lithuania submission to 2014 Oscar.

Ulrika Bengts

Studied film at the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a Finnish film and theater director that has directed dozens of short films, TV series an documentaries. Iris is her feature film debut and The Disciple is her second feature that premiered at 2013 Montreal World Film Festival, a film that became Finland's submission to 2014 Oscar.

Nana Ekvtimishvili

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then USSR). She studied screen-writing and dramaturgy at the University of Film and Television “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam, Germany. In Bloom is her feature debut as a director but she has been writing and co-writing screenplays for other films including Simon Groß's Fata Morgana. Simon Groß is the film co director and co writer along Ekvtimishvili. Film has already collected an impressive amount of awards including CICAE Award at 2013 Berlinale and FIPRESCI Prize plus Golden Firebird Award at 2013 Hong Kong fest. It is Georgia's submission to 2014 Oscar.


Hannah Espia

A graduate of the University of the Philippines Film Institute, Hannah Espia started as an editor. As a director, she participated in the Tokyo Talent Campus in 2012 and the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2013. Espia’s debut short film Ruweda won the Audience Award at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. Transit is her debut feature film that became Philippines 2014 Oscar entry and already won several awards at 2013 Cinemalaya Independent Festival but film is just starting the festival circuit.

Olena Fetisova

Born in Kiev, Ukraine. She graduated from the Moscow Film School VGIK, 1987. She has been working in the film industry without interruption ever since as a producer, writer and director. Is the European Documentary Network and Ukrainian Filmmakers Union Member, 2009 Ukrainian State Film Award Winner, 2009 EAVE graduate. She has directed mainly award winning documentaries and Paradjanov is her debut feature film as a director along with co director Serge Avedikian. Film is Ukraine submission to 2014 Oscar and premiered in competition for 2013 Karlovy Vary's East of West Award.


Mira Fornay

Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia). Attended the FAMU in Prague and the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, earning her diploma in 2004. In 2005 she was selected for the workshop of Iranian Director Abbas Kiarostami. Foxes (2009), her feature film debut, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was also shown in Rotterdam. My Dog Killer is her second feature that went to win the 2013 Rotterdam Tiger Award and was submitted by Slovakia to Oscar 2014.

Meenu Gaur

Gaur is originally from Kolkata, India and moved to Pakistan four years ago; she is married to Mazhar Zaidi who produced Zinda Bhaag, Pakistan's Oscar submission. Film is co directed by Farjad Nabi. Meenu Gaur completed her PhD in Film and Media Studies from the University of London in 2010. She received the Felix scholarship and Charles Wallace Scholarship for the same. She is the co-editor of the book ‘Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change’, published by Routledge 2011 and distributed by OUP Pakistan. She has been associated as Faculty of the Institute of Womens Studies Lahore (IWSL) under the aegis of Feminist Institute and Publishing House ASR (Applied Social Research Resource Centre). She is also the co-director of the award winning documentary film, ‘Paradise On a River of Hell’.Presently, she is working on a documentary film on Karachi and has received the ‘Jan Vrijman Fund’ and ‘Göteborg Film Fund’ for the same.

Iram Haq

Norwegian-Pakistani actress, writer, singer and director. Sudied Art Direction at Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo. She has acted in the features Import-Export (05), Fallen Angels (08), and Tomme tønner (10). Her short film Trofast (Faithful) was a selection at 2004 Venice Film Festival. She wrote and directed the short film Little Miss Eyeflap (09) which won The Ellen Award at Aspen Shortsfest in 2010. I Am Yours (13) is her debut feature and Norway's submission to 2014 Oscar.

Judith Kaufmann

Born in Stuttgart, Germany. After graduating from the National College of Optics and Photographer in Berlin, she apprenticed as a photographer until in 1982 she focused on film. Kaufmann is the co director of Germany's submission to 2014 Oscar Two Lives along with Georg Maas and she's also the film cinematographer. It is her debut as a director but she is very well-known as a cinematographer and I'm sure many of you have seen perhaps one of her best works Four Minutes as well as extraordinary Die Fremde (When We Leave), Vivere and fantastic Fremde Haut (Unveiled).

Gabriella Pichler

Born in Huddinge, Sweden, left her job at the cookie factory to attend the School of Film Directing in Gothenburg. Her graduation project, short film Scratches went to win many local and international awards and her debut feature film Eat Sleep Die already won Best Direction and Best Screenplay at the 2013 Guldbagge Awards plus the Audience Award at 2013 Biennale. Have seen her debut film and found it with a very mesmerizing minimalist/realistic style that engages your attention slowly but once you are engaged does not release you even after film is over as you will think about story and film for a long while. Her film is Sweden's submission to 2014 Oscar.

Lucía Puenzo

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is the daughter of AMPAS nominated director Luis Puenzo but in my opinion she has already establish herself as a great director in her own right with her debut feature film 2007 Cannes Critics Week winner excellent XXY, and with her second film puzzling The Fish Child. So it is no surprise -for me- that her third film The German Doctor was 2013 Cannes Official Selection in the Un Certain Regard section but can't deny that was kind of a (big) surprise that the Argentinean Academy opted to send for Oscar consideration a film by a female director. Her latest film is one that I'm really looking forward to watch as highly enjoy her particular storytelling style.

Gracia Quejereta

Born in Madrid, Spain. Studied Ancient History at the a Universidad Complutense de Madrid but her father is well-known producer Elías Querejeta. Her first film related work was as director assistant to Carlos Saura. Perhaps her best known work is Siete Mesas de Billar Francés that collected many local awards, including Best Screenplay at 2007 San Sebastian Film Festival. Her latest feature film 15 años y un día not only is Spain's submission to 2014 Oscar but already won the Golden Biznaga for Best Film and the Silver Biznaga for Best Screenplay at Malaga Spanish Film Festival.


Dana Rotberg

Born in Mexico City and went to Mexico's Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. She currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand after living in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has worked in the three countries and perhaps her best known Mexican work is Angel of Fire that was the opening film in 1992 Cannes Directors' Fortnight; her best known Bosnian work is MGM Sarajevo. Man, God and The Monster a documentary that also was the opening film of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight but in 1994 and The Perfect Circle that took the same opening spot in 1997. Her first work in New Zealand is White Lies that the country submitted to 2014 Oscar.

Lara Saba

After graduating in 1994 with a degree in audio-visual [communications] from the Jesuit University in Beirut, worked as an assistant director on feature films with the directors Joanna Hadjithomas, Khalil Greig, Merzak Allouache, the English director Sally Potter and Jean-Claude Maqdisi. After 1998, I got to know documentary filmmaking and did several documentaries, including "Suspended Return", which was screened solely for the media. [ won an award for this film from the United Nations Development Programme]. Then, I traveled to France and worked on producing Egyptian films and children's films for the Al-Jazeera Children's Channel as well as French television channels. After returning to Lebanon, I did several documentary films, some about Lebanon's television archives and others about people who fought in the Lebanese war. Blind Intersections is her first feature film and Lebanon's submission to Oscar 2014.


Valeria Sarmiento

Chilean writer-director and editor who studied philosophy and filmmaking at the University of Chile in the 1960s. Based in Paris since 1974, her documentaries and feature films tend to address Latin American gender politics but she is probably best known as the regular editor and collaborator of her late husband Raoul Ruiz (1941-2011) with whom she shared the Chilean Art Critics Circle's Bicentennial Award for cinema in 2010. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988 and is often cited alongside Angelina Vásquez and Marilú Mallet as a key woman filmmaker of Chilean exile. A retrospective of her work as director was held at Stanford University in May 2008.

Lines of Wellington is an epic war film and television series that was conceived by her husband and after his dead she completed the film which was premiered in competition at 2012 Biennale and became Portugal submission to 2014 Oscar.