September
23
Oscar Watch: Sony Pictures Classics Scores in Foreign Derby
There's no question that the field of submissions for the foreign Oscar in 2008 is going to be very very competitive. (Here's Variety's most recent tally.) It's been a good year.
Sony Pictures Classics is delighted that Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir has been submitted by Israel; the animated doc is also a likely contender for best animated feature, and possibly, but not doc, as it didn't get a qualifying run before playing the New York Film Fest.
SPC was banking that many of its foreign acquisitions would wind up being submitted by their countries, and so they have: besides Bashir, SPC is also releasing Norway's pick, Bent Hamer's O'Horten, as well as Laurent Cantet's Palme d'Or winner and NYFF fest opener The Class, which France selected over IFC's smart dysfunctional family drama A Christmas Tale, which played well at Cannes and Toronto.
SPC opted not to pick up Sweden's Everlasting Moments, knowing that they already had too many potential Oscar competitors to service this year. So IFC took on the Jan Troell career-capper, which should play well to Academy voters, who may remember 1973's foreign Oscar-winner The Emigrants.
Waltz with Bashir's Folman almost bit my head off at Telluride when I asked him if there was any rotoscoping involved. As a trained animator, he made sure I understood that this was no mickey mouse Richard Linklater situation: Bashir was hand-drawn from start to finish. Yes, it was videotaped and sound-recorded first, but hand-drawn by a team of animators nonetheless.
UPDATE: The combination of Folman's drive to reexamine his own past and tell this horrific story, combined with the artistry of the animation, is powerful indeed. Spoutblog spoke to Folman in Toronto.
Folman, who wrote for the Israeli TV series that formed the basis of In Treatment, is working on another project which is fun to think about: a to-be-retitled adaptation of Solaris author Stanislaw Lem's sci-fi tale Futurological Congress. It's about a gorgeous American actress on the cusp of losing her movie star luster who sells her likeness to Hollywood and can never work again. The movie will mix some live action with animation, and take the character forward 20 years. Who would be the perfect casting for this, someone who would be brave enough to play it? She'd have to be in her prime now. It could be Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Jason Leigh...the list isn't that long. Any ideas?
Here's the trailer:
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