Oscar's Foreign Language FUBAR Fix
To movie fans, a certain wild-guess category on the annual Oscar poll is known as "Best Foreign Film."
But the real name, since The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noticed that non-American and UK films had crossed over into the US market, has been "Best Foreign Language Film" or more precisely, a movie "produced outside the United States with a predominantly non English language soundtrack."
There are so many things wrong with "Rule 14" that it's hard to take a deep breath and remember the great films that have won the big prize: LA STRADA (Italy, 1956), CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, (Czechoslovakia, 1967), -Z- (Algeria, 1969), THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (Italy, 1971), DAY FOR NIGHT (France, 1974), THE TIN DRUM (West Germany, 1979).
But too many nominated films - and un-nominated ones - never made it to Oscar night because they violated one of the category's many strictures that the production, language - and the majority of the funding and cast and crew - originate from the nominating country. It may seem a small point to those of us who live in a big country and don't get out much, but so many of these movies are about refugees, war, crossing borders -- it seems ridiculous not to recognize many film industries are more international than our own. It's not cheating to get money from more than one country, or to speak multiple languages.
In 2005, the most notable omissions were CACHE/HIDDEN (made in France, with a French cast, with an Austrian director, and pan-European funding) and PRIVATE (the Italian entry, by an Italian director, made with a Palestinian and Israeli cast, in Arabic).
At least those critically hailed films benefitted from their Oscar snubs.
In recent years, nominating committees from various countries have passed over better films to submit middlebrow crap like LES CHORISTES (the Miramax entry from France in 2004) and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (the Miramax entry from Italy in 1998). Seriously, were they even the fifth-best movies from their respective countries?
Though it's cool to see films from Ivory Coast, Palestine and Nepal up against perennial winners like Italy and Spain, this isn't the Miss World contest - one flagbearer per country. If France makes three great films in one year, let them all have a chance.
But please: no more tearjerkers with adorable children, clowns and confetti on the poster. Academy voters, ever since the LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL fiasco, have been seeing right through that crap.
Read Anthony Kaufman's take on the rules change here, and some coverage of the 2005 Academy Award category. Remember who won? TSOTSI, from South Africa. The one with the adorable baby in the backseat of a carjacked car. Babies! The secret to Oscar success.
Indiewire's got more on the Foreign Film category rules.
Comments
If a baby is the key to winning the foreign flick prize, than The Child by the Dardenne brothers is a shoe in for 2006.
Posted by: Kevin Landry | July 13, 2006 01:12 AM