The fifteen titles that passed the first cut will become five when the Hollywood Academy announces the nominations for its 94th gala on February 9.
Sensitivity and emotion are two characteristics that they share Drive my car Y Flee, the two titles that are standing out from their competitors in the fight for the Oscar for Best International Film, in which Hispanics are also “Fire night” Y “Cathedral Square”.
The fifteen titles that passed the first cut will become five when on February 9 the Hollywood Academy announces the nominations for its 94th edition, whose gala will be held on March 27. But the path is already clearer for some than for others.
”DRIVE MY CAR”, THE JAPANESE JEWEL TO SUCCESS “PARASITE”?
With more than thirty awards, including several for the best film of the year -the last one this week from the National Society of Film Critics of the United States-, the international career of this film directed by the precious Ryusuke Hamaguchi began at the Festival Cannes, where he won the award for best screenplay.
Hamaguchi’s work as a screenwriter and director has also been recognized and he won the Golden Globe for best foreign film. Everything seems little for a subtle, elegant and profound film, which adapts a story by Murakami and has conquered viewers around the world, despite its three hours of duration. Whether he succeeds “Parasite” as the new star of Asian cinema remains to be seen.
“FLEE”: ANIMATION, COMMITMENT AND QUALITY IN A VERY SPECIAL FILM
The animation serves the Danish Jonas Poher Rasmussen to soften and give tenderness to a terrible story, that of Amin, an Afghan refugee who arrived in Denmark after an almost terrifying experience in Russia. Based on real events, the beauty of the drawings helps to understand more easily the hardness of a journey, both physical and mental.
A documentary film that in its mixture of genres and styles has its main weakness, since the fifty awards it has received are divided between best animated film, best documentary or best foreign film. And the distribution of votes always dilutes the opportunities.
”NIGHT OF FIRE”, THE MOST SOLID HISPANIC CANDIDATE
Together with the Spanish candidate “The good boss”, by Fernando León de Aranoa, there are two other Hispanic films that passed the first Oscar cut: “Fire night”, by Tatiana Huezo (Mexico), and “cathedral square”, from Abner Benaim (Panama).
Huezo’s film, beyond having the support of the giant Netflix, is a solid story about the violence suffered by adolescents in some Mexican regions controlled by drug cartels. A very hard story that is even more so for being an accurate reflection of reality. And the Panamanian is no less “cathedral square”, which if it entered the five finalists would be the first film from this country nominated for an Oscar.
A story of inequalities and human relations, even more shocking if we take into account that its young protagonist, Fernando Xavier De Casta, was murdered shortly before the film was released, in which he precisely played a street boy.
”THE GOOD BOSS”: SPAIN BETS IT ALL ON BARDEM
In a year in which there is a film by Pedro Almodóvar (“Parallel mothers”), the Spanish Film Academy decided to bet on “The good boss” a tragicomedy by Fernando León de Aranoa that has broken the record for nominations for the Goya Awards, with twenty options.
A business and corruption story that has Javier Bardem as its best asset, surrounded by a wonderful secondary team. Although in the American awards more is being heard to “parallel mothers” and Penelope Cruz. And Bardem too, but for his work on “Being the Ricardos”.
IRAN AND ITALY SEEK TO REPEAT OSCAR WITH FARHADI AND SORRENTINO
”A Hero”, de Asghar Farhadi, y “The Hand of God”, by Paolo Sorrentino, are the candidates from Iran and Italy, who have played it safe with two filmmakers who already know what it’s like to win an Oscar.
In Farhadi’s case, two, for “A separation” (2011) and by “The Salesman” (2016). While Sorrentino took it in 2014 for “The Great Beauty”.
Two solid films that are very representative of the style of their directors. In “A Hero”, Farhadi delves into the ins and outs of Iranian society and its complicated rules, which he knows so well, and into “The Hand of God”, Sorrentino draws on his childhood memories to make his film more personal and sentimental.
“HIVE”, THE SUNDANCE SURPRISE
In an edition with risky and high-level proposals, the surprise could come from a small candidate from an even smaller cinematography: “Hive”, debut feature by Kosovar Blerta Basholli, which won three awards at the 2021 Sundance Festival.
Based on true events, the film follows Fahrije (splendid Yllka Gashi, best actress at the Valladolid International Film Week). Her husband disappeared in the war in Kosovo and in a Muslim society like hers it is frowned upon for women to work.
A story of empowerment, unhealed wounds and social criticism that does not fall into excesses or drama or sentimentality and that shows a reality that is as present as it is unknown.
”COMPARTMENT NUMBER 6″ AND OTHER NORDIC PROPOSALS
Three very different proposals arrive from the Nordic countries: “Compartment Number 6″ (Finland), “Lamb” (Iceland) and “The Worst Person in the World” (Norway).
A delightful film by Juho Kuosmanen that takes place for the most part inside that “Compartment Number 6″ of a train on its way to the Arctic Circle in Russia in the 1980s. It is the Finnish proposal for the Oscars, which is endorsed by the Grand Prize won at the Cannes Festival.
Norway competes with “The Worst Person in the World”, another film that came out of Cannes, where the prize went to its leading lady, Renate Reinsve, in a fresh and unapologetic story, directed by Joachim Trier, which narrates the path to maturity of a young woman in today’s Oslo.
While “Lamb” was considered the best film of the last Sitges Festival. Starring Noomi Rapace and directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, its originality has been recognized at Cannes or at the European Film Awards. An allegory about motherhood and mourning in an isolated Icelandic landscape.
OTHER OPTIONS, FROM EUROPE TO ASIA
The 15 Oscar candidates are completed with three European titles -“Playground” (Belgium), “I’m your man” (Germany) and “Great Freedom” (Austria)- and a feature film of a totally unknown cinematography: “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (Bhutan).
The Belgian Laura Wanderl resorts to the realistic style stripped of artifice of the Dardenne brothers for her debut film, “Playground”, a film in which a girl barely 4 years old enters a school for the first time, a hostile territory that the director shows with almost no intervention from adults.
The German Mari Schrader performs in “I’m your man” a fun experiment on the limits of artificial intelligence and its relationship with man; Austrian Sebastian Meise competes with a prison tale that is at the same time an unusual love story and Pawo Choyning Dorji will try to get the first Oscar nomination for Bhutan with his film about an aspiring singer who wants to move to Australia. (AND)
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