Okay, everyone just calm down. Yes, the Academy left the Cannes Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days off of their short list for 2008 Oscar Best Foreign Film contenders, but let's breathe and examine this calmly. The announcement came Tuesday, but I held off on commenting since I was seeing 4 Months Wednesday morning and wanted to reserve opinion as two other much loved films (Persepolis and The Orphanage) also fell by the wayside.

Now, the short list of nine films that made the list is as follows:

• Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
• Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger, director
• Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director
• Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director
• Italy, The Unknown, Giuseppe Tornatore, director
• Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director
• Poland, Katyn, Andrzej Wajda, director
• Russia, 12, Nikita Mikhalkov, director
• Serbia, The Trap, Srdan Golubovic, director

Of these nine films I have seen none of them, and when reading Jeremy Smith over at CHUD talk about the situation and learning that even he has not seen any of them is even more shocking. You see, I pay attention to Jeremy's pieces and the dude stays up on all forms of cinema and for him not to have seen any of this year's foreign film contenders is very surprising. As for me, I could have seen The Counterfeiters last week, but decided to skip. Other than that, the other eight haven't even been screened in Seattle to my knowledge, a city where films like this do actually get preference if they are any good.

I have, however, seen Persepolis, The Orphanage (#10 on my Best of 2007 list) and now 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Odd to think I would have seen the three films left on the outside looking in, but I guess that is the way it goes. Then again, I am apparently far too easy to please as the online world is in an uproar over the snubbing of 4 Months. Let's take a look.

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere:

One of the biggest outrages in the history of the Academy's foreign film committee — a scandal fed by deficient taste and myopic, mule-like obstinacy — has just happened with the release of the nine-film short list that doesn't include Cristian Mungiu's widely hailed 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. The people who pushed for this decision need to be identified and, with all charity and compassion, expelled from this group for life. What will it take? Torches and pitchforks at the corner of Wilshire and La Peer at 8 pm this evening?

Scott Foundas at LA Weekly:

4 Months has been in this race from the beginning as Romania's official entry, competing against submissions from some 62 other countries, and its failure to advance to this penultimate round of the nominating process is as embarrassing a blunder as any in the Academy's history: You can put it right up there with the Best Picture win by Crash (2004).

Helen O'Hara at Empire:

…virtually the entire list is a mistake… Where's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days? The Orphanage? Persepolis? Are the Academy voters so blind that they couldn't stomach the idea of a film about abortion, however good? Did they dismiss the intelligent, layered, chilling Orphanage just because it could be described as a "genre" film? And is the ghettoisation of animation becoming a real problem for both the art form and awards season as a whole, so much so that a plainly superior film like Persepolis doesn't get a bite at the Foreign cherry because it's likely to be nominated for Best Animated Film?

Dave Poland at The Hot Blog:

The handling of docs and foreign language films continue to be an embarrassment to The Academy.

Finally, Kristopher Tapley at Variety's Red Carpet District:

I'm no major fan of Cristian Mungiu's film [4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days], mind you. But I do have profound respect for it and, frankly, I think this decision points a definitive finger at this branch's woeful lack of taste.

I ended with Tapley's comment because it is the one I feel best explains the situation without being overly dramatic. 4 Months, a film about two college roommates living in 1987 Romania partaking in an illegal abortion, is a VERY well made film, but it is hardly a film I would want to watch again. No, I didn't like it and I didn't enjoy the experience. Much like 2004's Vera Drake, I am able to recognize a well made film, but that doesn't mean I have to sit back and enjoy an abortion story, especially when I get an eyeful of aborted fetus for approximately 60 seconds as it lay on a bathroom floor resting on a bloody towel. 4 Months is a hard movie to swallow, but I also found it to be tedious at times. Yet, I am able to recognize it as a very well made film, just not up my alley.

I am also not a huge fan of Persepolis, which I believe to be a flawed film primarily since I don't see any real direction in the narrative. What exactly am I supposed to take away from Persepolis? I don't mind the omission of Persepolis, I think it is France's fault for not submitting The Diving Bell and the Butterfly instead. What, did they think a Foreign Picture nom would hurt its chances at Best Picture? Doesn't that pretty much speak volumes to the respect, or lack of respect, for the Foreign Picture category? As a matter of fact, some could contend that Persepolis has a chance in the Best Animated Picture category and therefore was snubbed in the Foreign cat in favor of getting another film recognized at the same time.

The one choice I am not at all surprised at was the omission of The Orphanage, a truly special horror film that is as dramatic and emotional as it is frightening. Unfortunately for The Orphanage, it is pegged as a genre film and that just ain't gonna fly in the Foreign Picture cat.

The real question is; Why the snubbing of 4 Months? Unfortunately it is a question I cannot answer since I haven't seen the nine short listed contenders, and based on reading the various reaction articles mentioned above it seems no one has seen them all, and I would wager to say no one above has even seen four of the nine listed. In all likelihood the nine films could be legitimately better than the three left out, but if that were true I would have to believe the folks mentioned above would have seen at least the majority of them.

Does the Academy's Foreign Picture category need a revamp? Sure it does. Hell, is it really fair that each country can only submit one film? What kind of mess is that? Why should France have to decide between Persepolis and The Diving Bell? Should one of the two films really be punished just because France was lucky enough to have two well made films? That fact alone is enough reason for the Academy to do a double take, and re-evaluate what they are doing over there.

Related post categories: Kudos to You, Oscar News : 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Persepolis, The Orphanage

Permalink   |   RSS Feed | 4 comments so far