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Filed under: Kudos to You

Foreign Language Oscar Hopefuls Wittled Down to Nine

I have listed my five picks...

BY: Brad Brevet | January 13th 2009 at 2:11 PM

The Academy has just released the nine final films up for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards from a previous list of 65.

I have listed the nine films below and placed in bold my predictions for the five nominees.

  • Austria, Revanche, Gotz Spielmann, director
  • Canada, The Necessities of Life, Benoit Pilon, director
  • France, The Class, Laurent Cantet, director
  • Germany, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Uli Edel, director
  • Israel, Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman, director
  • Japan, Departures, Yojiro Takita, director
  • Mexico, Tear This Heart Out, Roberto Sneider, director
  • Sweden, Everlasting Moments, Jan Troell, director
  • Turkey, 3 Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director

The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five 2008 nominees by specially selected committees in New York and Los Angeles. The committee members will spend this Friday, Saturday and Sunday viewing three of the films each day.

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.


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Post #1
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It's unfortunate that 'Gomorrah' and 'Let the Right One In' got the snubs this year.

- Garrett
( January 13th, 2009 | 2:39 pm )
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Post #2
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sad indeed.

- adu
( January 13th, 2009 | 2:44 pm )
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Post #3
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@Garrett: I was certainly surprised to see Gomorrah go, but as for Let the Right One In, Everlasting Moments was the film submitted by Sweden so it was never really in contention.

- Brad Brevet (Post Author)
( January 13th, 2009 | 2:46 pm )
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Post #4
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@Brad Brevet: Ah, I see. Then I suppose it was just unfortunate that Sweden could only pick one nominee, as it had two great films to choose from.

- Garrett
( January 13th, 2009 | 2:49 pm )
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Post #5
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@Garrett: Always the problem with the Academy's foreign language rules, an area that always seems to screw films over such as the complete dismissal of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days last year.

- Brad Brevet (Post Author)
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:20 pm )
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Post #6
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There is a rule in Foreign films category that even without the country selecting the film, they can independently apply their movie to the awards….if I am not mistaken, the producers of "let the right one in" should have done that…….

- bendi
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:25 pm )
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Post #7
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@bendi: To my knowledge and after reading the rules (which are right here) it looks like it's pretty firm in saying: "Only one picture will be accepted from each country." Which is a garbage rule if you ask me…

- Brad Brevet (Post Author)
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:37 pm )
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Post #8
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Just realized, Let the Right One In was released in Norway on October 24, which means it missed the cut off. It can be eligible for next year's Oscars…

- Brad Brevet (Post Author)
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:48 pm )
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Post #9
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@Brad Brevet: yeah checked the rules, only one film per country…….I don't know where I have heard that……….sorry…..

- bendi
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:51 pm )
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Post #10
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It's a shame that countries can only nominate one film, but then again, other countries have their own film awards which reward local films. The right films will get their recognition somewhere.

- Andrew
( January 13th, 2009 | 3:54 pm )
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Post #11
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The lack of 'Gomorra' is extremely suprising.

I've seen about 10 foreign films from this year, but strangely only two from that list. The two I've seen, The Class and Waltz With Bashir, should be nominated, and if it were up to me, the latter would win.

- Chris C.
( January 13th, 2009 | 7:40 pm )
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Post #12
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Revanche is from my home country, so I hope for that one :)

Gomorrah is missing but I don´t care.

- Steolicious
( January 14th, 2009 | 11:35 am )
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