Oscars Foreign Film Short List Announced
Wednesday January 14, 2009
The Academy has released their short list for Best Foreign-Language Film. The two top contenders are Lauren Cantet's urban high school drama The Class, which received the Palme D'or at Cannes, and Ari Folman's animated anti-war autobiography Waltz With Bashir, which just won a Golden Globe this past weekend.
Nine films were chosen from a field of 65 eligible titles. The remaining films are Austria's Revanche, Canada's The Necessities of Life, Germany's The Baader Meinhof Complex (pictured: Moritz Bleibtreu and Martina Gedeck), Japan's Departures, Mexico's Tear This Heart Out, Sweden's Everlasting Moments, and from Turkey, 3 Monkeys. The final five nominated films will be announced on January 22.
Comments
I’m a little surprised that Gomorra didn’t make it. I kept hearing about how it was the next Godfather. Oh, well…
There is definitely some surprise about the omission of Gomorroh. Fortunately, the film is already guaranteed a release with IFC.
This year’s picks seem to make more sense than last year, the Academy snubbed Cristian Mungiu’s 3 Weeks and 2 Days/I> which won the Palme D’or at Cannes, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage.
Again, the Philippine had been snubbed by the Academy.. I wish they had more time to review such quality films…
daryl john,
Thanks for your comment. I was not aware of the Phillipine film choice for this year’s Oscars. Have you seen it? Can you recommend good films from the Philippines to our audience?
Best,
Marcy