And then there were nine. Eighty-seven nations submitted one film each to compete for the 2019 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and last month the Academy announced its shortlist. Cinephiles can now or very soon see all but one of these extraordinary movies, which tell stories of Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Asia, on a Laemmle screen:
Birds of Passage (Colombia), dirs.: Cristina Gallego/Ciro Guerra |
The Guilty (Denmark), dir: Gustav Moller |
Never Look Away (Germany), dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck |
Shoplifters (Japan), dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda |
Ayka (Kazakhstan), dir: Sergei Dvortsevoy (this one is still looking for a U.S. distributor) |
Capernaum (Lebanon), dir: Nadine Labaki |
Roma (Mexico), dir: Alfonso Cuaron |
Cold War (Poland), dir: Pawel Pawlikowski |
Burning (Korea), dir: Lee Chang-dong |
The Academy will announce the final five nominees on January 22. Read Nancy Tartaglione’s Deadline Hollywood post about the shortlist, including a couple surprising omissions, here.
Are there any 2018 films you think should have made the cut? Or do you think AMPAS did well?