On the heels of two of the most successful non-English films in Oscar history, the category is facing a year of production halts and theater closings
These should be the best of times for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category. After all, last year’s winner, “Parasite,” went on to win additional Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. The year before, “Roma” won in the category that was then called Best Foreign Language Film, then added Best Director and Best Cinematography awards.
With the Academy adding more members outside the United States every year, the international category is becoming more and more of a powerhouse. But can it continue that clout this year, when production and exhibition has been curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic and there may well be fewer entries than usual? And regardless of the number of entries, is there anything out there that feels like the next “Roma” or “Parasite”?
The answer is almost certainly no on the second question, but it’s premature to draw any conclusions on the first. Certainly, you’d think that the number of 2020 entries would fall short of the 90-plus that have qualified in two of the last three years: Theaters have been closed internationally and film festivals like Cannes and Venice, which normally would have shown countries which of their films were most likely to be Oscar-worthy, have either been canceled or scaled back.
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And yet with a full month and a half remaining before the delayed Dec. 1 deadline for submitting entries, more than 15 films have already been announced as their countries’ submissions, more than usual at the same point in the usual Oscar calendar. (Submissions are usually due by Oct. 1, which puts us in the equivalent of mid-August on the normal calendar.)
Of the films that have been submitted so far, the highest profile are Switzerland’s “My Little Sister,” Romania’s “Collective,” the Czech Republic’s “Charlatan,” Georgia’s “Beginning,” Ivory Coast’s “Night of the Kings,” Poland’s “Never Gonna Snow Again,” Taiwan’s “A Sun” and “Bosnia and Herzegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
But even though the vast majority of countries have yet to make their choices, nothing is liable to create anywhere near the kind of Oscar buzz that the Mexican film “Roma” or South Korea’s “Parasite” did. Then again, those are two of the most successful non-English films in Oscar history, so it’s probably silly to think that their success will be an annual occurrence.
This year, countries with the potential to be strong contenders include Denmark (which could go with Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round”), France (maybe Maiwenn’s “DNA,” though the country always has lots to choose from), Mexico (with either Fernando Frias de la Parra’s “I’m No Longer Here” or Michel Franco’s “New Order”), India (with Chaitanya Tamhane’s “The Disciple”), Russia (Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades!”) and Greece (with Christos Nikou’s “Apples,” which mixes the oddness of Greek nominee “Dogtooth” with a more sentimental story that may draw in voters).
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For the third consecutive year, screenwriter Larry Karaszewski and executive Diane Weyermann are heading the Academy’s International Feature Film Award Executive Committee, but their job may be very different this year: Where they normally welcome voters to two months of in-person screenings in October, this year all of the viewing in the first round will likely take place virtually, on the secure, members-only Academy Screening Room. The phase-one voting, which used to be the province of the L.A. members who went to screenings, will be open to any member who sees enough films to qualify. That could mean more voters, and it will almost certainly mean more voters outside the United States.
Here’s the list of the films that have been submitted by Academy-approved international boards so far. A spot on this list does not guarantee that a film will be eligible, because entries have to be vetted by the Academy to make sure they qualify. (Last year, the requirement that a film have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track” knocked out two entries at the last minute.)
Albania: “Open Door,” Florenc Papas
Algeria: “Heliopolis,” Djaafar Gacem
Bhutan: “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,” Pawo Choyning Dorji
Bosnia and Herzegovina: “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Jasmila Zbanic
Croatia: “Extracurricular,” Ivan-Goran Vitez
Czech Republic: “Charlatan,” Agnieszka Holland
Ecuador: “Emptiness,” Paul Venegas
Georgia: “Beginning,” Dea Kulumbegashvili
Ivory Coast: “Night of the Kings,” Philippe Lacote
Kosovo: “Exile,” Visar Morina
Luxembourg: “River Tales,” Julie Schroell
Palestine: “Gaza Mon Amour,” Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
Panama: “Causa Justa,” Luis Franco Brantley, Luis Pacheco
Poland: “Never Gonna Snow Again,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert
Romania: “Collective,” Alexander Nanau
Singapore: “Wet Season,” Anthony Chen
South Korea: “The Man Standing Next,” Woo Min-ho
Switzerland: “My Little Sister,” Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond
Taiwan: “A Sun,” Chung Mong-hong
Ukraine: “Atlantis,” Valentyn Vasyanovych
TheWrap also keeps a running list of all the films that have been submitted, with descriptions and links to trailers when available. That can be found here.
CORRECTION: The initial version of this story said that Mexico had submitted “I’m No Longer Here” to the Oscars. The country has yet to make its selection.
Steve Pond
Steve Pond has been writing about film, music, pop culture and the entertainment industry for more than 40 years. He has served as TheWrap’s awards editor and executive editor, awards since joining the company in 2009. Steve began his career writing about music for the Los Angeles Times, where he remained a contributor for more than 15 years, and Rolling Stone, where he was West Coast Music Editor and wrote 16 cover stories. He moved into film coverage with a weekly column in the Washington Post and became a contributing writer at Premiere magazine, where he became the first journalist to have all access to the Academy Awards show and rehearsals. He has also written for the New York Times, Movieline, the DGA Quarterly, GQ, Playboy, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, New York, the Christian Science Monitor, Live! magazine and many others. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller “The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards” (Faber and Faber, 2005). He has also written “Elvis in Hollywood” (New American Library, 1990) and contributed to books that include “Cash,” “The Rolling Stone Reader,” U2: The Rolling Stone Files,” “Bruce Springsteen: The Rolling Stone Files” and “The Rolling Stone Interviews: The 1980s.” He was the co-managing editor of the syndicated TV news program “The Industry News” and the creative consultant for the A&E series “The Inside Track With Graham Nash.” He has won L.A. Press Club awards for stories in TheWrap, the Los Angeles Times and Playboy, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a story in Premiere.