I haven’t talked much if at all about this year’s foreign language Oscar race, primarily because I have only seen one of the 24 films submitted so far and that is Russia’s entry, Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel, which I saw at Cannes last year and didn’t particularly enjoy.
There are several I’ve heard of including Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary Pina, Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse, Where Do We Go Now? which just won the Toronto Film Festival Audience Award, Asghar Farhadi’s Nader and Simin, A Separation which people seem to either love or hate, Agnieszka Holland’s Polish-set WW II feature In Darkness and Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre, which was just picked up for distribution by Janus Films and will hit Los Angeles theaters on October 21.
Le Havre was a big hit at Cannes earlier this year where I also missed it and had too much work not gotten in the way I would have seen it in Toronto this year, but I guess my time will come soon enough. On top of the distribution news for Le Havre I also have the English language trailer debut, which I’ve included at the bottom of this post, just after my list of the first 24 Foreign Language submissions.
I keep track of these all throughout the year in the Foreign Language section of my “Contenders” pages so be sure to check there once a week and you should notice the list growing more and more in the coming days as the deadline for all countries to send in their submissions is October 1.
Here is the list as of right now:
Afghanistan to France
- Austria, Breathing (dir. Karl Markovics)
- Belgium, Bullhead (dir. Michael R. Roskam)
- Finland, Le Havre (dir. Aki Kaurismaki)
- France, Declaration of War (dir. Valerie Donzelli)
Georgia to Morocco
- Germany, Pina (dir. Wim Wenders)
- Greece, Attenberg (dir. Athena Rachel Tsagkari)
- Hungary, The Turin Horse (dir. Bela Tarr)
- Iran, Nader and Simin, A Separation (dir. Asghar Farhadi)
- Japan, Postcard (dir. Kaneto Shind?)
- Lebanon, Where Do We Go Now? (dir. Nadine Labaki)
- Lithuania, Back to Your Arms (dir. Kristijonas Vildziunas)
- Morocco, Omar Killed Me (dir. Roschdy Zem)
Netherlands to Venezuela
- Netherlands, Sonny Boy (dir. Maria Peters)
- Norway, Happy, Happy (dir. Anne Sewitsky)
- Philippines, The Woman in the Septic Tank (dir. Marlon Rivera)
- Poland, In Darkness (dir. Agnieszka Holland)
- Portugal, Jose and Pilar (dir. Miguel Goncalves Mendes)
- Romania, Morgen (dir. Marian Crisan)
- Russia, Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov)
- Serbia, Montevideo, God Bless You! (dir. Dragan Bjelogrlic)
- South Korea, The Front Line (dir. Jang Hun)
- Sweden, Beyond (dir. Pernilla August)
- Taiwan, Seediq Bale (dir. Wei Te-Sheng)
- Venezuela, The Rumble of the Stones (dir. Alejandro Bellame)
And here is the trailer for Le Havre:
