French, Hungarian films shortlisted for foreign Oscar  – Nine movies advance in foreign-language film race

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LOS ANGELES, Dec 18, (Agencies): France’s “Mustang” and Hungary’s “Son of Saul” are among nine films that have made it onto a shortlist in the contest for the foreignlanguage Oscar, Academy Awards organizers said late Thursday. The nine films — seven of them from Europe, one from Colombia and one from Jordan — were selected from 81 submissions. “Mustang” is the first feature film by Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven. Focused on five sisters living in a village in northern Turkey who are kept at home by their family when they are deemed too rebellious, it was screened at the Director’s Fortnight at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and has received international critical acclaim. It is the first time in decades that France is being represented by a non French-language film.

The last time was in 1960, when its Portugueselanguage submission, “Black Orpheus,” won the Oscar. France last won an Oscar in 1993 with “Indochine,” starring Catherine Deneuve. Depictions The harrowing Holocaust drama “Son of Saul”, which offers unflinching depictions of the gas chambers of Auschwitz, claimed the runner-up Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes has been widely acclaimed for taking audiences into a Nazi concentration camp and showing the Holocaust in a different way. Others in the running are Belgium’s “The Brand New Testament,” Colombia’s “Embrace of the Serpent” and Denmark’s “A War.” Finland’s “The Fencer” also made the cut, as well as Germany’s “Labyrinth of Lies,” Ireland’s “Viva” and Jordan’s “Theeb.”

The shortlist will now be whittled down to five finalists who will be announced together with all other Oscar nominations on Jan 14. Nine films have advanced in the race for the Oscar for foreign-language film, moving on to the next phase of voting for the 88th Academy Awards. The list has been narrowed down from the 80 that were originally considered eligible. See the films that have advanced below: Belgium, “The Brand New Testament”, Jaco Van Dormael, director; Colombia, “Embrace of the Serpent”, Ciro Guerra, director; Denmark, “A War”, Tobias Lindholm, director; Finland, “The Fencer”, Klaus Haro, director; France, “Mustang”, Deniz Gamze Erguven, director; Germany, “Labyrinth of Lies”, Giulio Ricciarelli, director; Hungary, “Son of Saul”, Laszlo Nemes, director (in photo); Ireland, “Viva”, Paddy Breathnach, director; Jordan, “Theeb”, Naji Abu Nowar, director. Voting in the category is determined in two phases. The phase one committee, made up of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened submissions between mid-October and Dec 14.

The shortlist consists of this group’s six choices with three additional selections voted by the Academy’s foreign- language executive committee. The list will be narrowed down to the five official nominees, which will be announced, along with nominations for all other awards, on Thursday, Jan 14, at 5:30 am PST. Seven of the nine films are from Europe. There is one from the Mideast and one from South America. Asia and Africa were shut out, as were Australia (which had submitted “Arrows of the Thunder Dragon”) and North America (including Canada’s “Felix and Meira” and Mexico’s “600 Miles”). As in every year, there were some high-profile films that didn’t make the cut.

The no-shows include Austria, “Goodnight Mommy”; Brazil, “The Second Mother”; Iceland, “Rams”; Iran, “Muhammad: The Messenger of God”; Israel, “Baba Joon”; Montenegro, “You Carry Me”; Palestine, “The Wanted 18”; Poland, “11 Minutes”; Portugal, “Arabian Nights – Volume 2, The Desolate One”; Sweden, “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence”; and Taiwan, “The Assassin.” Those films were high-profile, due to festival berths and/or big box-office. This year, as in every year, pundits were surprised at some lesser-known titles on the list, but the Acad’s foreignlanguage voters always counter that with “But when you see the films that made the cut, you will understand why they’re there.” The 88th Oscars will be held Sunday, Feb 28 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and will air live on ABC.

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