Palme d'Or winner Dheepan
With this year's Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Cannes Film Festivals behind us, I decided to do a little preliminary prognostication on the upcoming Foreign Language Oscar race. Here are some of the films I've identified based mainly on the following criteria:
- Festival Awards (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes or Tribeca)
- National Awards
- Previously submitted director
- Prime US distributor (i.e. Sony Pictures Classics)
Sworn Virgin (Tribeca Nora Ephron Prize) - Albania
Paulina (Cannes Critics' Week winner) - Argentina
The Second Mother (Sundance Acting Prize and Berlin Audience Award winner) - Brazil
The Club (Pablo Larrain, Berlin Grand Prix) - Chile
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, Cannes Directors Fortnight winner) - Colombia
The High Sun (Dalibor Matanic, Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize) - Croatia
Lamb - Ethiopia
Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, Cannes Palme d'Or winner) - France
Victoria (Berlin Best Cinematography) or Labyrinth of Lies (Sony Pictures Classics) or 13 Minutes (Oliver Hirschbiegel, Sony Pictures Classics) - Germany
Son of Saul (Cannes Grand Prix, Sony Pictures Classics) - Hungary
Rams (Un Certain Regard winner) or Virgin Mountain (Dagur Kari, Tribeca Best Narrative Feature + Best Actor + Best Screenplay) - Iceland
Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda, Sony Pictures Classics) or Journey to the Shore (Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Director) - Japan
The Summer of Sangaile (Sundance Best Director) - Lithuania
Panama Canal Stories (Abner Benaim) - Panama
Body (Berlin Best Director) or Bogowie (Polish Film Awards Winner) - Poland
Aferim! (Berlin Best Director) or The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu, Cannes Prix Un Certain Talent) - Romania
The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Cannes Best Director) - Taiwan
Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) - Thailand
Mustang (Cannes Europa Cinemas Label Award) - Turkey
Are there any I'm missing? Let me know in the comments.
