The hoopla surrounding this years Oscar ceremony has just started to kick into gear. This year the topics of hot debate are the snub of Into the Wild, Enchanted hogging up the music category, Norbit receiving a nomination at all and, as in every year, the Best Foreign Picture category.
I, of course, have very strong thoughts about each of these realties. However, there is one in particular that has grabbed my interest, the Best Foreign Picture category. Films like Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days have long been regarded as the must beat films of 2007. Yet, here on the day of the Oscar nominations, all of them are conspicuously absent. I don’t love 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. After all, it is an entirely humorless exercise in human misanthropy. It is about illegal abortion and it is shot in the vein of Italian Neo-Realism. And frankly at times it can be down right boring, but it is powerful. And it does say something very profound about repression and the state of Romania in a time of political toltaltarnism. It did win nearly every award it was capable of winning. So you have to ask yourself, why did this film, along with Persepolis, get completely snubbed?
Well first you have to consider how the films are selected. Unlike all the rest of the awards in the Academy, these films are picked by a group of volunteers who can watch nearly 14 to 18 films in two months. The film are usually not available on DVD, and, either way, participates are required to attend screenings many day. These screenings are held mostly during the day and thus these screenings are excluding many active directors and accordingly the young. So when fresh or controversial films come along the voters are almost entirely old people who aren’t notoriously great for accepting the young and provocative. I believe last year if the entire Academy had voted, Pan’s Labyrinth would have won.
Another thing that tends to be missing for this category are films that are part of movements. It took the French forever to win anything for their first Nu-wave and we have still yet to honor Mexico for its "Renaissance.” Just to let you know Y Tu Mama Tambien came about before this “Renaissance.”
Third there are some really dumb rules. If for instance there is slightly too much English, or one language isn’t prominent enough it becomes completely irrelevant. In an increasingly global world such demands are pretty old fashioned.
And last and perhaps most important, is really necessary that there be a category for foreign language films or, for that matter, animated films? If the films are good enough they too should be included. They should not be forced to sit on the sidelines as major awards are accepted. Also, how come people like Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard can be nominated in Best Actress categories, when their films are almost never nominated in the Best Picture in the general category? In a way it is very egocentric to suggest that only great films come from the States or England and that animation could never be the best picture of the year. I still say that, in its year, Beauty and the Beast should have won best picture.
So Presopolis was excluded because to the old folks it is just a cartoon. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was excluded because it is just too controversial. There is no other reason. It says nothing of either of their qualities as motion pictures or there artistic validity, it is, like always, politics. Yet, let’s be honest, that is part of the fun.
Let the Oscar race begin. Here is your complete list of nominated films. Including a place where Norbit battles it out with La Vie En Rose
I, of course, have very strong thoughts about each of these realties. However, there is one in particular that has grabbed my interest, the Best Foreign Picture category. Films like Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days have long been regarded as the must beat films of 2007. Yet, here on the day of the Oscar nominations, all of them are conspicuously absent. I don’t love 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. After all, it is an entirely humorless exercise in human misanthropy. It is about illegal abortion and it is shot in the vein of Italian Neo-Realism. And frankly at times it can be down right boring, but it is powerful. And it does say something very profound about repression and the state of Romania in a time of political toltaltarnism. It did win nearly every award it was capable of winning. So you have to ask yourself, why did this film, along with Persepolis, get completely snubbed?
Well first you have to consider how the films are selected. Unlike all the rest of the awards in the Academy, these films are picked by a group of volunteers who can watch nearly 14 to 18 films in two months. The film are usually not available on DVD, and, either way, participates are required to attend screenings many day. These screenings are held mostly during the day and thus these screenings are excluding many active directors and accordingly the young. So when fresh or controversial films come along the voters are almost entirely old people who aren’t notoriously great for accepting the young and provocative. I believe last year if the entire Academy had voted, Pan’s Labyrinth would have won.
Another thing that tends to be missing for this category are films that are part of movements. It took the French forever to win anything for their first Nu-wave and we have still yet to honor Mexico for its "Renaissance.” Just to let you know Y Tu Mama Tambien came about before this “Renaissance.”
Third there are some really dumb rules. If for instance there is slightly too much English, or one language isn’t prominent enough it becomes completely irrelevant. In an increasingly global world such demands are pretty old fashioned.
And last and perhaps most important, is really necessary that there be a category for foreign language films or, for that matter, animated films? If the films are good enough they too should be included. They should not be forced to sit on the sidelines as major awards are accepted. Also, how come people like Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard can be nominated in Best Actress categories, when their films are almost never nominated in the Best Picture in the general category? In a way it is very egocentric to suggest that only great films come from the States or England and that animation could never be the best picture of the year. I still say that, in its year, Beauty and the Beast should have won best picture.
So Presopolis was excluded because to the old folks it is just a cartoon. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was excluded because it is just too controversial. There is no other reason. It says nothing of either of their qualities as motion pictures or there artistic validity, it is, like always, politics. Yet, let’s be honest, that is part of the fun.
Let the Oscar race begin. Here is your complete list of nominated films. Including a place where Norbit battles it out with La Vie En Rose
1. Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
2. Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."
3. Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."
4. Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."
5. Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."
6. Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
7. Foreign Film: "Beaufort," Israel; "The Counterfeiters," Austria; "Katyn," Poland; "Mongol," Kazakhstan; "12," Russia.
8. Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, "Atonement"; Sarah Polley, "Away from Her"; Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
9. Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno"; Nancy Oliver, "Lars and the Real Girl"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, "Ratatouille"; Tamara Jenkins, "The Savages."
10. Animated Feature Film: "Persepolis"; "Ratatouille"; "Surf's Up."
11. Art Direction: "American Gangster," "Atonement," "The Golden Compass," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "There Will Be Blood."
12. Cinematography: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Atonement," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
13. Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "3:10 to Yuma," "Transformers."
14. Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "There Will Be Blood," "Transformers."
15. Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli; "The Kite Runner," Alberto Iglesias; "Michael Clayton," James Newton Howard; "Ratatouille," Michael Giacchino; "3:10 to Yuma," Marco Beltrami.
16. Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; "Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "Raise It Up" from "August Rush," "So Close" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
17. Costume: "Across the Universe," "Atonement," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "La Vie en Rose," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
18. Documentary Feature: "No End in Sight," "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," "Sicko," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "War/Dance."
19. Documentary (short subject): "Freeheld," "La Corona (The Crown)," "Salim Baba," "Sari's Mother."
20. Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Into the Wild," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
21. Makeup: "La Vie en Rose," "Norbit," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
22. Animated Short Film: "I Met the Walrus," "Madame Tutli-Putli," "Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)," "My Love (Moya Lyubov)," "Peter & the Wolf."
23. Live Action Short Film: "At Night," "Il Supplente (The Substitute)," "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)," "Tanghi Argentini," "The Tonto Woman."
24. Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Transformers."
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