After all the love on the festival circuit, I am surprised not to see Police, Adjective on the final short list for the Best Foreign Language Film nominees. AMPAS has narrowed it down to nine, with further pruning to five to come. Looks like Michael Haneke is the clear front-runner in this category with The White Ribbon, but this one is often very hard to predict. And yes, it is sad that Bong Joon-Ho's Mother did not make the cut.
The 9 are below:
El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella - Argentina
Samson & Delilah, Warwick Thornton - Australia
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Stephan Komandarev - Bulgaria
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard - France
The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke - Germany
Ajami, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani - Israel
Kelin, directed by Ermek Tursunov - Kazakhstan, - Kazakhstan
Winter in Wartime, directed by Martin Koolhoven - The Netherlands
The Milk of Sorrow, directed by Claudia Llosa - Peru
The 9 are below:
El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella - Argentina
Samson & Delilah, Warwick Thornton - Australia
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Stephan Komandarev - Bulgaria
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard - France
The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke - Germany
Ajami, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani - Israel
Kelin, directed by Ermek Tursunov - Kazakhstan, - Kazakhstan
Winter in Wartime, directed by Martin Koolhoven - The Netherlands
The Milk of Sorrow, directed by Claudia Llosa - Peru
"Winter in Wartime" is still in? Wow...
How it got sent to the academy is a story worthy of a movie in itself.
After enjoying a box office and critical success in The Netherlands this was the surefire title to send to the Oscars.
But then something funny happened. The much-derided film "White Light" was remixed and recut for the international markets, and given a new title: "The Silent Army". This film surprisingly was so much better than the previous longer version that it was picked up for competition in Cannes in 2009, the first Dutch movie to get that honor in decades. Upon its premiere in Cannes it even got a standing ovation by the audience.
First it was announced that "Winter in Wartime" was going to the Oscars, then suddenly it got pulled and replaced with "The Silent Army", to much angry outcry over here (we still think of it as "Last Year's White Light Minus the Bad Bits").
What happened next was even funnier: "The Silent Army" got sent back by the Academy because re-cuts are not allowed in the competition! The people responsible for sending "The Silent Army" were now criticized for not being able to read the rules properly, and in place of "The Silent Army" it was "Winter in Wartime" which was finally sent AND accepted by the Academy.
Fingers crossed it will make the last five...