Quit Staring at My Plate (Ne gledaj mi u pijat), the debut feature film from director Hana Jušić’, has been selected by Croatia as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Mia Petričević, Nikša Butijer, Arijana Čulina, Zlatko Buric had its World Premiere at the 2016 Venice Days where the film won the FEDEORA Award for Best European Film.
In the film Marijana’s life revolves around her family, whether she likes it or not. They live on top of one another in a tiny apartment, driving one another crazy. Then her controlling father has a stroke and is left completely bedridden, and Marijana takes his place as head of the clan. Soon, she is working two jobs to keep everything afloat, while her mother and disabled brother do their best to scupper the ship. Driven to the edge, Marijana finds comfort in seedy sex with random strangers; and this taste of freedom leaves her wanting more. But now that she has finally found freedom, what’s she meant to do with it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjE6IE9QgNkForeign Language Films
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QUIT STARING AT MY PLATE is Croatia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Quit Staring at My Plate (Ne gledaj mi u pijat), the debut feature film from director Hana Jušić’, has been selected by Croatia as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Mia Petričević, Nikša Butijer, Arijana Čulina, Zlatko Buric had its World Premiere at the 2016 Venice Days where the film won the FEDEORA Award for Best European Film.
In the film Marijana’s life revolves around her family, whether she likes it or not. They live on top of one another in a tiny apartment, driving one another crazy. Then her controlling father has a stroke and is left completely bedridden, and Marijana takes his place as head of the clan. Soon, she is working two jobs to keep everything afloat, while her mother and disabled brother do their best to scupper the ship. Driven to the edge, Marijana finds comfort in seedy sex with random strangers; and this taste of freedom leaves her wanting more. But now that she has finally found freedom, what’s she meant to do with it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjE6IE9QgNk
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SCARY MOTHER is Georgia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Ana Urushadze’s award-winning debut feature film, Scary Mother (Sashishi deda), has been selected by Georgia as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Nata Murvanidze, Ramaz Ioseliani, Dimitri Tatishvili, and Avtandil Makharadze, World Premiered at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival where the film won the Swatch First Feature Award (Prize for Best First Feature). After the Locarno Film Festival, the film competed at the 2017 Sarajevo Film Festival where it won the the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film; and the Cineuropa Prize.
Scary Mother follows the story of a 50-year-old housewife, Manana (Nato Murvanidze), struggling with a dilemma: she has to choose between her family life and a love for writing she has repressed for years. When she finally decides to follow her passion, she is ready to sacrifice everything for it, mentally and physically.
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Annemarie Jacir’s WAJIB is Palestine’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Wajib, a film written and directed by Annemarie Jacir, has been selected by Palestine as its official candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film starring Mohammad Bakri, Saleh Bakri, Maria Zreik and Leila Bakri, World Premiered in official competition at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival, and will have its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
In the film, Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
This is director Annemarie Jacir’s third time representing Palestine at the Academy Awards, having been submitted for Salt of the Sea (2008) and When I Saw You (2012).
Click here to see a clip from Wajib
Wajib by @AnnemarieJacir is selected to rep. #Palestine in the Best Frgn Film category at the 90th Academy Awards. #Oscars, here we come! pic.twitter.com/cE4ZiEHmNt
— Noor (@suleimannh) August 29, 2017
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer + Poster for Documentary Fairy Tale SPETTACOLO
Its finally here, the trailer and poster for Spettacolo, the documentary fairy tale about a tiny Italian farming village that turns their lives into a play. The documentary directed by Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen will be released in theaters in New York on September 8th.
Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th anniversary performance just might be its last. Spettacolo tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world.
Jeff Malmberg is a documentary director and editor based in Los Angeles. In 2017, his feature documentary Spettacolo had it’s world premiere at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival. The film is supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Sundance Documentary Fund, Creative Capital, and the Tribeca Film Institute. Jeffʼs debut film Marwencol won over two dozen awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards, Best Documentary of the Year from Boston Society of Film Critics and Rotten Tomatoes, and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival.
Chris Shellen is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She produced the award-winning documentary Marwencol and co-authored the companion art book “Welcome to Marwencol,” which was named one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com. She began her career as a film development executive based at a Paramount Pictures, and has worked in documentary, narrative and new media for over 15 years. Her directorial debut Spettacolo had it’s world premiere at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival.
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BLACK LEVEL is Ukraine’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
The Ukraine Oscar Committee has selected Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Black Level, as its candidate in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Odesa International Film Festival, where it won the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI prize.
“Black Level” is a documentary-feature drama telling the story of a 50-year-old wedding photographer facing the prospect of losing everything he has ever loved.
50-year anniversary is the beginning of a complicated phase in the life of a wedding photographer Kostya. All that he loved and to which had been tied to, permanently disappears. Although there are not so many such things in his life: father, paralyzed by a stroke; girlfriend, working as a stylist in a wedding magazine; an old cat and photographic slides in which Kostya is young and happy. Kostya is photographing someone else’s happiness all of his life. For him, it is a daily routine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0D0CRejU3A
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WOODPECKERS is Dominican Republic’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
José María Cabral’s Woodpeckers (Carpinteros) was selected this week as Dominican Republic’s official submission for the 2018 Foreign Language Oscar category.
Woodpeckers (Carpinteros) which premiered earlier this year at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival tells the story of handsome Dominican-Haitian Julián (actor Jean Jean in a breakout role) who begins a begins a jail sentence for petty theft inside the notorious Najayo prison just outside Santo Domingo. He becomes immersed in the system of “Woodpecking,” the unique sign language the male prisoners use to communicate with women in the adjacent penitentiary just over 400 feet away. Julián’s entanglement with one female inmate, Yanelly (the astonishing Dominican actress Judith Rodriguez Perez), is the fuse that ignites the events of Woodpeckers, which was shot on location at the actual prison using real inmates for all but the lead roles.
Director José María Cabral’s first feature film, Jaque Mate (2011), was selected as the Dominican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.
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RACER AND THE JAILBIRD is Belgium’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Michaël R Roskam’s Racer and the Jailbird (Le Fidèle), has been selected as Belgium’s official candidate for the best foreign-language film at the 2018 Oscar.
In Racer and the Jailbird, starring Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Our Souls at Night) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color), it’s love at first sight at a racing circuit when gangster Gino (‘Gigi’) meets Benedicte (‘Bibi’), a wealthy and fearless racing driver. Fierce and loyal, Gigi and Bibi fight for their love against fate, but also against reason and their own weaknesses. But how far can endurance be stretched? How far can they go to try and save what may already be lost?
Michaël R Roskam’s was previously nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar for his feature debut Bullhead in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPQ8MnfZl4
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Can Ulkay’s AYLA is Turkey’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Can Ulkay’s debut feature Ayla: The Daughter of War has been selected as Turkey’s official candidate for the best foreign-language film at the 2018 Oscar.
The film tells the story of a soldier (played by Ismail Hacioglu as the young soldier, and Cetin Tekindor as an older man) who risks his own life to save a young girl Ayla ( played by Kim Seol as a young girl and Lee Kyung-Jin as an older woman) he finds half-frozen and on the verge of death, smuggling her into his army base. Despite being unable to communicate with each other, the two form a strong bond. When the war ends and the soldier must return home, he cannot bear to abandon the girl but is forced to hand her over to an orphanage, hoping one day to be reunited with her. The pair were finally reunited 60 years later.
The film is based on the true story of Korean War veteran Süleyman Astsubay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PELOIYaEiw
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Ruben Östlund’s THE SQUARE is Sweden’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Ruben Östlund’s The Square, 2017 Palme d’Or winner, has been selected as Sweden’s official entry for the 2018 Foreign Language Oscar category.
Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West and Terry Notary star in the satirical drama set in the art world, about an art museum chief curator whose plans to promote an exhibit spiral out of control.
Christian is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum, a divorced but devoted father of two who drives an electric car and supports good causes. His next show is “The Square”, an installation which invites passersby to altruism, reminding them of their role as responsible fellow human beings. But sometimes, it is difficult to live up to your own ideals: Christian’s foolish response to the theft of his phone drags him into shameful situations. Meanwhile, the museum’s PR agency has created an unexpected campaign for ”The Square”. The response is overblown and sends Christian, as well as the museum, into an existential crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmMYzyVt5Y
This is Ruben Ostlund’s third time representing Sweden at the Oscars – Involuntary was the official submission in 2009, and he made the shortlist in 2014 with Force Majeure but was disappointedly not nominated. In response he made the YouTube video “Swedish director freaks out when he misses out on Oscar nomination.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTWqLmnjt0
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Fatih Akin’s IN THE FADE is Germany’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Fatih Akin’s In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts) will represent Germany as the country’s official submission for the 90th Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In the film, Katja’s (played by Diane Kruger) life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. The police arrest two suspects: a young neo-Nazi couple. Katja wants justice – for her, there is no alternative.
In the Fade world premiere in competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, where Diane Kruger won the award for Best Actress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKBqOE3WNu0
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Three Films on Shortlist for Denmark’s Foreign Language Entry in 2018 Oscar Race
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Word of God[/caption]
The Danish Oscar committee has selected three films as finalists to represent Denmark as the country’s official entry for the 2018 Foreign Language Oscar category.
The three films are Peter Schønau Fog’s “You Disappear,” Henrik Ruben Genz’ “Word of God” and Fenar Ahmad’s “Darkland.”
The committee will make the final decision on September 20.
You Disappear / Du forsvinder
Peter Schønau Fog’s second feature film is based on Danish writer Christian Jungersen’s bestselling novel. Mia is married to the successful headmaster Frederik, who is caught embezzling from his own school. But did he do this of his own free will – or has his personality been altered by the tumour lurking in his brain? The film is a story about the challenges we face as neuroscience forces us to rethink what we are as human beings.
It will be making its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf4kORjB04w
Word of God / Gud taler ud
Henrik Ruben Genz’ satirical drama is an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Jens Blendstrup. The story, set in the late eighties, revolves around Uffe (Søren Malling), a self-appointed almighty God with a mild dependency on alcohol who rules over his family in the detached house where they live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2lUfAKoFvE&t=13s
Darkland / Underverden
In Fenar Ahmad’s second feature film, Dar Salim plays a successful surgeon living a comfortable life, who embarks on a one-man mission to avenge the murder of his brother.
“Darkland” was selected for competition at the Moscow Film Festival, marking its international premiere, and also screened at Montreal Fantasia Film Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=333cCxNembY
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Ilgar Najaf’s POMEGRANATE ORCHARD is Azerbaijan’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Ilgar Najaf’s Pomegranate Orchard has been selected by Azerbaijan as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 90th Academy Awards.
The film which world premiered in the “East of the West” competition of the 2017 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival stars Qurban Ismayilov, Anar Hasanov, Samimi Farkhadov and Hasan Agayev.
In Pomegranate Orchard, Gabil returns home to the humble family farmstead, surrounded by an orchard of venerable pomegranate trees; since his sudden departure twelve years ago he was never once in contact. However, the deep emotional scars he left behind cannot be erased from one day to the next.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVm8N-S0Ma4