This is worse than the Holocaust.

Damned intolerant blue-staters.

They didn't include "The Orphanage" or "Persepolis" either! The foreign-language committee (as well as the documentary feature committee) are an utter disgrace.

Life on earth is over as we know it!!!

(Seriously, a gross oversight though.)

From the blog (http://kenru.net/movies/2007-8_academy_foreign.html) of the Academy member who actively screens the Foreign Film submissions:

"Trap" - ***3/4
"Beaufort" - ***1/2
"Counterfeiters" - ***1/2
"Katyn" - ***1/2
"Unknown" - ***1/4
"Darkness" - ***
"Parents" - ***
"12" - ***
"Mongol" - **3/4. And then:

"4 Months" - ***1/4
"Persepolis" - ***1/4
"Orphanage" - **1/2.

Other films he rated higher than Mungiu's: "I Just Didn't Do It" (Japan), "The Edge of Heaven" (Germany), "Silent Light" (Mexico), "Ben X" (Belgium), "The Witnesses" (France), "The Class" (Estonia)

So there you have it. He found 10 films (at least; I didn't count the ones that tied the star rating) that he liked better. If every Academy member did likewise (gravitating, I suspect, towards more conventional/feel-good/familiar/uplifting/comfortable/non-challenging material), is it any wonder "4M3W&2D" found itself in the middle of the pack?

I've seen Brazil's entry, The Year My Parent Went on Vacation, and it's very good, though far from great. I think its story fits the preferences of the Academy foreign language committee perfectly and it's a strong candidate for a nomination, and who knows, maybe even to win the thing.

However I am a bit ashamed that my country's first Oscar might come from a movie nowhere as good as other films from the same year such as Persepolis or 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. I remember my outrage when City of God, a masterpiece, wasn't even nominated.

The Academy's foreign language committee needs some major change.

The Edge of Heaven was really good - I'm somewhat surprised it didn't make the short list too.

Still, the Academy failed to nominate City of God back in the day until a year later in other categories, so anything's possible.

4 Months... is the best film I have seen all year, and I am so disappointed to see it left off this list while my own country, Canada, gets a potential nod with the thoroughly mediocre Days of Darkness.

Silent Light is a far greater oversight than 4 Months in my opinion, but what do you expect, it's the Oscars. This isn't the award for "greatest work of art in a foreign language," it's the award for "most familiar, conventional, and accessible movie with subtitles."

Flanders.

Flanders is right up there with SL and 4M3W&2D, but they're all Cannes-style art films, not crowd pleasers.

what JD said. SILENT LIGHT was fanfuckingtastic.

The academy is officially out of touch with film today. What, was the subject matter of 4 Months too harsh? Was Persepolis too young? New voters wanted. No, demanded.

Appalling. Too bad IFC doesn't have the deep pockets to shoot for a Best Picture nomination.

If David Fincher and Zodiac get dissed by the Academy, I'm considering taking that day off from work, and planting myself in front of my laptop reading Hollwood Elsewhere all day, hitting F5 in between laughs.

Seriously.

The nomination system for this catagory is idiotic from top to bottom. I've never understood why we let countries nominate their own choices. Do we really think Iran or China will send the best film if it happened to conflict with government policy or values?
Should the domestic nominees for best picture be nominated by the congress or the president or the supreme court?

Compare and contrast: Two reviews from Variety

By DEREK ELLEY
The message is diluted by the medium in Denys Arcand's "Days of Darkness (The Age of Ignorance)." ...intermittently entertaining but nowhere near as sharp or funny as it should be. Way better than Arcand's superficial parody of celeb culture, "Stardom" (2000), but lacking the spark and banter of his Oscar-winning "The Barbarian Invasions," ho-hum Cannes closer... becomes repetitive and tedious, sapping the central story of its juice."

By DEREK ELLEY
The point at which a good director crosses the career bridge to become a substantial international talent is vividly clear in "The Edge of Heaven," an utterly assured, profoundly moving fifth feature by Fatih Akin. Superbly cast drama, in which the lives and emotional arcs of six people -- four Turks and two Germans -- criss-cross through love and tragedy takes the German-born Turkish writer-director's ongoing interest in two seemingly divergent cultures to a humanist level that's way beyond the grungy romanticism of his 2003 "Head-On" or the dreamy dramedy of "In July" (2000)."

Guess which film made the Acad shortlist?

no Silent Light
no The Edge of Heaven
no 4 Months
no Persepolis
no Secret Sunshine

WTF? WTF?

Does anyone know what the release plan is for 4 MONTHS in L.A.? I know it played a week at the end of December to qualify for awards (to no avail), but what now? Does the lack of Academy recognition affect my chances to see it on the big screen? If so, DAMN THEM!

At the risk of being a Philistine, I found PERSEPOLIS to be a film easier to respect than to love. But I wouldn't mind if it won Best Animated Film.

I wish THE ORPHANAGE had made the shortlist, but (as was mentioned in an earlier post) it was probably dismissed as nothing more than a well-made genre film.

And I'm looking forward to seeing 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS to discover how off-the-mark the Academy's foreign-film nominating committee was.

Always with the pitchforks.

Jesus, this just reinforces my belief that the elderly should not be allowed to do anything. They shouldn't vote, shouldn't drive, and certainly shouldn't fuck, ew.

I'm glad to see THE UNKNOWN (or Unknown Woman) was recognized. It's a riveting and heartbreaking thriller from Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, Malena) - with a great score by Morricone.

Jeff - you should just stop blogging about the Oscars completely. No coverage at all. That would teach 'em.

YND asked:
Does anyone know what the release plan is for 4 MONTHS in L.A.? I know it played a week at the end of December to qualify for awards (to no avail), but what now? Does the lack of Academy recognition affect my chances to see it on the big screen? If so, DAMN THEM!

As far as I know, it will open in the Valley on February 1st at the Laemmle Encino Town Center--a venue with a mostly older, conservative audience. When I saw PERSEPOLIS there on Sunday, it had been moved to the small Screen 1.

Damn, being a senior citizen I'll have to run over their toes with my walker.

Is it true that "12" is a Russian remake of "12 Angry Men"? If so, Lumet could get an Oscar this year after all (well, by proxy).

I admit, I was shocked when I read the list of finalists. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS is definitely in my Top Ten of 2007. However, I can't be completely judgmental until I've seen the films that were in fact selected. I remember being similarly shocked last year when VOLVER wasn't nominated in the category. But then I saw all five of the nominated films and found out why: they were all significantly better than VOLVER.

John Y: They didn't include Orphanage because it's an amateurish piece of shit :P

The Documentary, Foreign film and composers are always the lamest of the nomination groups. Not like there's going to be a show this year anyhow. There's enough bad blood between the writers and Jon Stewart to keep it blocked.

Truly shocking list. I thought 4months would be there for sure and same with Persepolis.

I have seen Days of Darkness, which I thought was very good, but I don't think it would translate to well for people outside of Quebec. I thought it's very strong.

Mongol got some good reviews in TIFF same with the Counterfeiters. But this is truly a shocking list indeed.

I haven't seen all of the eligible films so I can't be super pissed that all the ones I did see were overlooked. Besides, as corey3rd just mentioned this category is always a joke. There is nothing new here.

What's sad is that an Oscar is the only way to convince most Americans to go see a foreign film in the first place.

I saw 4 MONTHS and am not surprised that it wasn't shortlisted. It was OK but nothing special. The ending was too abrupt, and it lacked character development. Too much time was spent on the politics of Romania, such as the difficulty of trying to find a hotel room, and not enough time was spent on who these characters really were. I mean, why did the pregnant girl's friend spend almost her whole day running errands for the pregnant girl? I don't think even a family member would do something like that. Only a weakling would do that and the friend did not seem like a weakling. After I saw 4 MONTHS, hardly anyone applauded. I think the audience was still getting over the shock of the abrupt ending.

Persepolis is still up for Best Animated Film.

Gotta go with truefaith on this one, I caught it recently, and while I appreciate the whole thing aesthetically, I thoguht it was kinda bland and one note. I like the low budget arty Euro flavor as much as the next cineaste, but outside of the dinner party scene (maybe one of the great one shots in recent memory), it seemed like "been there, done that." At least they rewarded "The Lives Of Others" last year, a far superior film in every way.

Nice analysis by ArchiveGuy, though I do wonder how many AMPAS members saw as many as Mr. Rudolph.

I'm starting to think we might be in for a bunch of surprises - disappointing ones - next Tuesday morning when the nominees are announced...

I think it's been clear for awhile that the foreign film voters make their picks by looking for previously-nominated directors and pad out the list with the tired-and-true "dartboard" method.

Time for me to say: Told-ya!
http://cinemascopian.com/foreign-shortlist-romania-out-israel-in/