FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: 9 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS
A few surprises come out of the Foreign Language Feature being shortlisted, especially with no love for Saudi Arabia’s first feature film ever “Wadjda” as well as previous winner Asghar Farhadi and his new film “The Past” starring Bérénice Bejo. I’m disappointed not to see “The Wall” or “Renoir” in the final cut. Regardless, we are left with “The Broken Circle Breakdown” which has gotten fairly good word of mouth. Also, “The Great Beauty” has been showing up constantly as well as “The Hunt”, starring Mads Mikkelsen, which has now appeared on several critics’ awards. “The Grandmaster” had the biggest release of the films, which gives it a good shot at getting nominated.
- Belgium, “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Felix van Groeningen
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker,” Danis Tanovic
- Cambodia, “The Missing Picture,” Rithy Panh
- Denmark, “The Hunt,” Thomas Vinterberg
- Germany, “Two Lives,” Georg Maas
- Hong Kong, “The Grandmaster,” Wong Kar-wai
- Hungary, “The Notebook,” Janos Szasz
- Italy, “The Great Beauty,” Paolo Sorrentino
- Palestine, “Omar,” Hany Abu-Assad
