This year, perhaps more than any Oscar year in recent memory, the stage has been set for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make more relevant choices, forced to do so by the number of prestigious contenders entering the race with palpable Festival buzz from across the globe, not the least of which comes from our own Vancouver film festival.
From Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation to the art-thriller Miss Bala, which has generated considerable crossover appeal among the journalist bloggers who influence Academy decision-making, at the 2012 Oscar ceremony we may be in for the most nourishing winner we’ve seen since Caroline Link’s Nowhere in Africa — VanRamblings’ favourite film of the past decade — took the Best Foreign Language film prize in 2003.
As of this past Thursday, the Academy announced that 63 countries have entered potential nominees for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, to be awarded at the 84th Academy Awards the evening of February 26, 2012. The Academy’s Foreign Language Committee will review all the submissions and vote for the five nominees. The final five nominees will be announced the morning of Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:30 a.m. PT.
The films that appear to be the primary frontrunners include Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Award winner, A Separation (Iran), Nadine Labaki’s Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner Where Do We Go Now (Lebanon), Anne Sewitsky’s Happy, Happy (Norway), Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre (Finland), Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness (Poland), Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), and The Flowers of War (China).
The official submissions for the Best Foreign Language Oscar are:
Albania, “Amnesty,” Bujar Alimani, director;
Argentina, “Aballay,” Fernando Spiner, director;
Austria, “Breathing,” Karl Markovics, director;
Belgium, Bullhead, Michael R. Roskam, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Belvedere,” Ahmed Imamovic, director;
Brazil, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” José Padilha, director;
Bulgaria, “Tilt,” Viktor Chouchkov, Jr., director;
Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar,” Philippe Falardeau, director;
Continue reading Oscar Watch: Best Foreign Language Film Nominees, by Country
