Categories One-by-One: International Film

[Okri]

Honestly, I didn't realize it was in that 4-unknowns land, to be honest. Just that the years were different.

[Mister Tee]

Every film that's been nominated for both all won International Feature/Foreign Language Film easily.

Not a perfect riposte, admittedly, but The Emigrants lost best foreign language film in 1971 to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis but was nominated for best picture the following year. Its sequel, The New Land was also nominated in foreign language film the same year.

I'm sure you know this, but the reason it's not a perfect riposte is, when The Emigrants turned up on the 1971 list, it was one of the then-traditional anonymous "also-nominated" films, that were there be defeated by the front-runner in much the same way the bums-of-the-month fell to Muhammad Ali in the same era.

Which is to say, in 1971, the nominees were Garden of the Finzi-Continis and four other movies no one had seen or maybe heard of. The distinction of The Emigrants was getting a strong release the following year -- probably with help from Liv Ullmann's rising star -- and establishing the identity it had lacked a year prior. (It was still a startling best picture nominee, to me. Ullmann's best actress nod was a given, but Troell's multiple nominations came out of the blue.)

[Okri]

Every film that's been nominated for both all won International Feature/Foreign Language Film easily.

Not a perfect riposte, admittedly, but The Emigrants lost best foreign language film in 1971 to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis but was nominated for best picture the following year. Its sequel, The New Land was also nominated in foreign language film the same year.

I think Flee could win, but I also thought it would be nominated in best picture.

[gunnar]

I think Drive My Car could lose, though it seems unlikely at this point. It is my favorite film from 2021 that I've seen so far and I hope it wins in this category. I don't expect it to have much of a chance for Best Picture. I do like three of the other nominees quite a bit. The only one that I'm kind of lukewarm on is The Hand of God and even that one wasn't bad.

[anonymous1980]

I will post the remaining other categories if Mister Tee doesn't. Anyway, I have a query:

Drive My Car is nominated for both Best Picture and International Feature. Logic follows it's a slam-dunk for International Feature, no? Every film that's been nominated for both all won International Feature/Foreign Language Film easily. But could it lose? There have been examples of other International Feature nominees that had wide enough support that it's very likely they could have gotten a Best Picture nomination if there HAD been an expanded line up: Seven Beauties, Cyrano de Bergerac, Amelie and Pan's Labyrinth but all lost International Feature. Of course this happened during a time where they had a rule in place that only Academy members who saw all five nominees in special screenings are the ones allowed to vote for the category. So maybe this scenario will be unlikely to happen....unless of course TWO non-English language films break through in Best Picture...with the expanded lineup and the increasing number of international members will likely happen within the next decade.

[Mister Tee]

With under 48 hours till showtime, let's see if we can get a full set of category discussions.

The nominees:

Drive My Car (Japan)
Flee (Denmark)
The Hand of God (Italy)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)
The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

There were two developments in the competition for this category. One occurred on nominations day, when two-time winner Farhadi unexpectedly missed a nomination for A Hero. The other had happened earlier: when the big-time critics' groups went so unanimously for Drive My Car as not just best International film, but best film altogether of 2021. What might have been a pretty lively race among several strong films was suddenly Drive My Car lapping the field. As far as the Globes, Broadcasters and BAFTA were concerned, that was the ballgame: they all lined up behind Hamaguchi's film, and it's widely expected to finish off the season with the Oscar.

But, the funny (not funny-haha) thing about the Oscars is, one gets so used to having one's hopes crushed, paranoia arises: it's hard not to worry that this scenario -- one I agree with as fully as any in recent years -- will somehow be headed off at the last moment. (I see Eric, an equal fan, has bet against it in our contest, solely on the basis it seems too good to be true.) I keep fearing the "it's 3 hours/I couldn't get through it" thing will rise up and choke it at the finish line.

If that unhappy event were to occur, it seems likely The Worst Person in the World would be the beneficiary. Worst Person is, in fact, a great success (by International standards) and would probably be the easy winner in a world where Drive My Car didn't exist. Flee would also be a possibility, though I think its supporters are probably pushing harder under animation or documentary.

Probably it'll be Drive My Car. I'll bet that way. I'm just saying, I won't fully relax till I hear it read off as the winner.