January
15
Oscar Shuns 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Oscar foreign film committee head Mark Johnson's worst fear has been confirmed. The nine films advancing to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 80th Academy Awards do not include Cristian Mungiu's lauded Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the European Film Award, as well as landing on many ten best lists.
Also not included, perhaps because voters expected it to turn up in the animation category, was Marjane Satrapi's artful adult animated feature, Persepolis, which was France's Oscar submission. The country might have been better off submitting La Vie en Rose, which was a stateside crowdpleaser and a rare foreign-language hit. The Golden Globes nominated both 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and Persepolis in the foreign language category. "I'm mortified," said one Academy member.
One way to alter the foreign-language voting is to have foreign branch members serve a limited term, and rotate in and out, so that the same people aren't always voting. "People should show they've seen a certain number of foreign language films during the year to qualify," suggested one Oscar publicist. "They should be aware of foreign language films."
The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Austria, “The Counterfeiters,” Stefan Ruzowitzky, director Brazil, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,” Cao Hamburger, director Canada, “Days of Darkness,” Denys Arcand, director Israel, “Beaufort,” Joseph Cedar, director Italy, “The Unknown,” Giuseppe Tornatore, director Kazakhstan, “Mongol,” Sergei Bodrov, director Poland, “Katyn,” Andrzej Wajda, director Russia, “12,” Nikita Mikhalkov, director Serbia, “The Trap,” Srdan Golubovic, director
The first phase of voting consisted of several hundred L.A.-based Academy members who each saw a selection of the 63 qualifying films. (Not qualifying were France's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Israel's The Band's Visit.) From Friday, January 18, through Sunday, January 20, in both Hollywood and New York City, a second phase committee comprised of ten randomly selected members from the first phase plus invited ten-member groups in NY and LA, will view the nine film shortlist and select the final five nominees. They will be announced January 22.
UPDATE: I've talked to many people about this, all of them depressed by the way the Academy voting went. In the end, whatever the foreign committee's motives--rewarding lower-profile films that needed a boost, voting for films with familiar and beloved directors who they had nominated before, like Mikhalkov, Arcand, Wajda, Bodrov, and Tornatore, or going with old-fashioned taste and not being willing to embrace the new--the Academy foreign branch selections do not reflect the best foreign films of the year. Pure and simple. While I have not seen all the films, nor am I dissing the ones on the list, too many excellent films, like Persepolis, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Caramel, The Orphanage, Silent Light, Secret Sunshine and Edge of Heaven, were not selected.
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What a depressing list. You'd never know it from Oscar's nominees, but this was a phenomenal year for foreign-language films from just about everywhere. Hell, I could probably give you five films from Romania alone that could rival any of these.
First you have "La Vie en rose," "Diving Bell" and "The Banishment" left out of selection. Then you have "Lust, Caution" and "The Band's Visit" disqualified. Then you have "4 Months...," "Persepolis," "Caramel," "The Edge of Heaven," "Secret Sunshine" "Jar City" and "The Orphanage" all passed over.
It's as though the Acad just underwent a systematic vetting of everything that was exciting in world cinema this year. Sigh...
Posted by: Andrew | January 15, 2008 at 06:01 PM
This is just horrible. How can the Academy let this farce continue? "Diving Bell", "Kite Runner", "The Band's Visit", are all high profile films inegible to start with. Then, they exclude "4 Months", "Persepolis", "Edge of Heaven", and "The Orphanage" (among others) for.... these? They cannot be serious.
I was so hopeful last year. I thought that maybe even with a broken system we could still get good nominees. Clearly, I was being optimistic. This is disgraceful. Please, can't anyone in the Academy fix this?
Posted by: Mindy | January 15, 2008 at 10:38 PM
It is quite interesting how everyone is making a big fuss over the exclusion of Cannes winners Persepolis and 4 Months... when nobody as much as frowned when L'enfant was excluded not so long ago.
All one can say about this shortlist is: Berlin-Cannes: 3-1. (Mongol was in Toronto/Rome, Tornatore in Rome the year before that and 12 in Venice.)
What is even stranger is the complete absence of non-ex-USSR Asian titles... they were very strong this year.
Posted by: European Films | January 16, 2008 at 04:03 AM
Oh... and I forgot: Katyn is in Berlin this year, so that makes it 4-1 for Berlin!
Posted by: European Films | January 16, 2008 at 04:09 AM
I will first admit two things.
1. I haven't seen any of the films AND
2. I almost never agree with the nominees in this category even though I end up seeing roughly half the list each year.
However, the fact that obscure films show up on this list again and again show that at least the Oscar committee is "unbiased" and impervious to lobbying. Whereas an expensive Oscar campaign with glossy ads is able to get embarassingly average films like "Seabiscuit" and "Sideways" into the Oscar race, this committee at least votes with its honest opinion and not in accordance with what outsiders want it to vote for.
I will never forgive this committee for shunning "The Sea" (Iceland) or "Celebration" (Denmark) or "Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring" (Korea) or "Colour of Paradise" (Iran) over lesser films, but I admire their neutrality.
The nominated films (with the exception of Canada) are all supposed to be very good. Please give them all a chance because you blame the committee. I look forward to seeing them all before making a judgment.
Posted by: A.D. | January 16, 2008 at 06:10 AM
It's your favorite wet blanket again.
NONE of the films this year really deserve noms.
more than half of them(on the long/short list) wouldn't inspire me to take the hybrid out to the video store in the next strip mall and rent one free for 1.99.
So why not live dangerously and be nepotistic? Oscar went to europe this year. The cold WWII places. They tell me croatia is where the US Troops go for some R&R
Posted by: Ramesh | January 17, 2008 at 08:11 AM