In the extraordinary new age of subtitled streaming and globalized filmmaking, this is a category that is becoming a caricature of itself as a relic of the past. Cinema today deserves better than an award for "best global miscellanea." #Oscars https://t.co/oYd0ky6vlY
— Bilal Qureshi (@bqilal) March 23, 2022
We all know NPR is known for clickbait (#sarcasm). NPR clickbait would have to be a bit more sophisticated, such as talking about films not in English and with subtitles.
Bilal Qureshi makes a case "for nixing the Oscars' best international feature category" but the case is extremely weak. The basic argument is that now foreign films are more excepted than ever before, the need for the category disappears.
Yes, several films in this year's Oscars run for Best International Feature Film, culminating in Sunday's ceremony on ABC and CTV, are nominated in multiple categories.
The five nominated films for best international feature film have no legitimate artistic reason to be measured against each other for one Oscar. Their only qualification (and misfortune) to be judged this way is their non-Englishness. In the extraordinary new age of subtitled streaming and globalized filmmaking, this is a category that is becoming a caricature of itself as a relic of the past. Cinema today deserves better than an award for "best global miscellanea."
This feels like tea that has sat out for about an hour. The award isn't about the 5 films that make the list or the 15 that make the shortlist.
Over 100 countries get to submit a film for each season. Think of it like Eurovision with songs, except for the world in film. We compare and contrast the films. We get to talk about films that are in languages other than English. Flee is up for 3 possible awards. Drive My Car (Japan) is in the Best Picture category. Worst Person in the World (Norway) is up for original screenplay.
Think about Spain in this Academy Awards season. The focus has been on Penelope Cruz, who is up for Best Actress for Parallel Mothers. The Pedro Almodóvar film isn't even Spain's entry into the Oscars category. That distinction went to El buen patrón | The Good Boss from director Fernando León de Aranoa.
Funny Boy disqualified as Canada entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars
Lionheart from Nigeria suggests Academy Awards reconsider language for best international feature film
The competition for interest has sparked some countries accidentally or purposefully to sneak a film that clearly has too much English. Lionheart (Nigeria) might have been a true case of naivete 2 seasons ago. Listen (Portugal) and Funny Boy (Canada) likely weren't naive cases.
Les oiseaux ivres | Drunken Birds from Ivan Grbovic was one of the rare films in recent years to be the Oscar nominee from Canada and also make the TIFF Top 10 list. What? Chien de Garde didn't make the TIFF list? (#sarcasm)
The best service this award offers is to grant these "unfamiliar films" and filmmakers greater visibility and distribution for American audiences. In the past, that meant specialty studios could release them into cinemas for short runs or they would become available for purchase on services like iTunes. This year is already different. The broken model for theatrical distribution for smaller films has been a windfall for access to international cinema. Flee is already streaming on Hulu, Drive My Car is on HBO Max, Hand of God was produced by and is on Netflix, and both Worst Person in the World and Lunana: A Yak In the Classroom are available via video on demand.
Before Parasite, this category was relegated to films shown in large cities with little publicity for a week. In typical NPR fashion, the prism is seen through the eyes of those with the special opportunities. Those in the hinterlands had virtually no chance of seeing such films in any context.
We also shouldn't ignore the fact that a lot of people got more comfortable with subtitles once they watched films on their computers instead of a film screen or even a TV screen.
Denis Villeneuve gets 2 Oscar nominations for Dune but not Best Director
The Canadian influence on Dune from Denis Villeneuve and others
Les Oiseaux Ivres misses the Oscars shortlist cut for Best International Feature Film
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Canada has an oddity in that most of its films are ineligible for Best International Feature Film. Films in French and Indigenous languages have made up the vast majority of Canadian nominees.
Even within Canada, the Best International Feature Film category encourages English Canadians to watch Quebecois films in their own country.
(Denis) Villeneuve's Quebec work has been in the mix for Oscars consideration in what was then the Best Foreign Language Film category: Cosmos (1997), of which Villeneuve was one of several directors; August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre (1998); Maelström (2000); and Incendies (2010). Only Incendies made the shortlist or the Top 5 cut.
This category helped the world outside Quebec notice a filmmaker named Denis Villeneuve. While your humble narrator has been paying attention, the world caught up a bit.
The Academy Awards, like BAFTA and the Cesars, celebrate film from around the world, not just in its inner Hollywood sanctum. We should reward that more, not less.
Twitter capture: @bqilal
photo credit: Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds film
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