87th Academy Awards Foreign Language Film Submissions

October 10th, 2014

Yesterday the Academy published the list with a record eighty-three films submitted for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category with Malta, Mauritania, Panama and Kosovo being first-time entrants.

According to AMPAS news the published list are still submissions which somehow makes me wonder IF all will be accepted as seems that there are a few films that have a foreign language but also English and IF English is spoken above the acceptable quota, film will be disqualified. Perhaps soon we will learn if there will be or not films with too much English spoken.


Also was reading news from China that tells that submitted film has NOT been premiered in China, yet; well, perhaps film had the 7-days qualifying requirement but now I am just wondering...

Will update if necessary according to news, but now we truly have to consider that Academy members have the surmountable task of watching 83 films in less than two work-days months! Which means more than two films per day! I will LOVE to watch all the films but not even me with my passion for good cinema have the time and energy to watch all those films in that amount of time. So, I ask, what will the Academy do to be fair to all films submitted? Increase the number of members of the Foreign Language committee? Allow at least five different people watching each film? What? Doubt the Academy will explain detailed procedure, but have no doubt that task will be a bit harder than last year.

Nevertheless this is a GREAT list with films from all over the world, many films are must be seen by those that love great cinema, other films seem can be entertaining and the rest perhaps you and I can skip watching.

---///---
October 6th, 2014

Soon will update post with my comments but will not change post date as if I do links from other web sites will be broken. Not all Blogger changes are positive and not able to keep post name the same when you only change post date is not good. Sigh.

--///---
See previous comments at end of post.

Submission deadline for Foreign Language Film is Wednesday, October 1st, 2014 by 5pm PT. The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015 and about a week before organizers will announce the short list of nine (9).

As in previous years in parenthesis will include the festival where film was screened plus the director's name will be in BLUE when is a female director.

Afghanistan: فیلمِ سینمایی چند متر مکعب عشق Chand Metre Moka’ab Eshgh (A Few Cubic Meters of Love), Jamshid Mahmoudi
Argentina: Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales), Damián Szifrón (Cannes)
Australia: Charlie's Country, Rolf de Heer (Cannes)
Austria: Das Finstere Tal (The Dark Valley), Andreas Prochaska (Berlinale)
Azerbaijan: Nabat, Elchin Musaoglu (Biennale Orizzonti)

Bangladesh: জোনাকির আলো Jonakir Alo (Glow of Firefly), Khalid Mahmood Mithu
Belgium: Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night), Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardene (Cannes)
Bolivia: Olvidados, Carlos Bolado
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sa mamom (With Mom), Faruka Lončarevića (2013 SarajevoFF)
Brazil: Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks), Daniel Ribeiro (Berlinale Teddy Award winner)
Bulgaria: българска рапсодия Bulgasrska Rapsodia (Bulgarian Rhapsody), Ivan Nitchev

Canada: Mommy, Xavier Dolan (Cannes Jury Prize winner)
Chile: Matar a un Hombre (To Kill a Man), Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Rotterdam IFF KNF Award winner and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner)
China: 夜莺 Ye Ying (The Nightingale), Philippe Muyl
Colombia: Mateo, María Gamboa
Costa Rica: Princesas Rojas (Red Princesses), Laura Astorga (Berlinale 2013 )
Croatia: Kauboji (Cowboys), Tomislava Mršića (Pula)
Cuba: Conducta (Behavior), Ernesto Daranas
Czech Republic: Fair Play, Andrea Sedlácková (Karlovy Vary)

Denmark: Sorg og glæde (Sorrow and Joy), Nils Malmros (Rotterdam IFF)
Dominican Republic: Cristo Rey, Leticia Tonos

Ecuador: Silencio en la tierra de los sueños (Silence in Dreamland), Tito Molina
Egypt: فتاة المصنع Fatat el masnaa (Factory Girl), Mohamed Khan
Estonia: Mandariinid (Tangerines), Zaza Urushadze (Tallinn Black Nights)
Ethiopia: Difret, Zeresenay Berhane Mehari (Berlinale Panorama)

Finland: Betoniyö (Concrete Night), Pirjo Honkasalo (Göteborg)
France: Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello (Cannes)

Georgia: სიმინდის კუნძული Simindis kundzuli (Corn Island), George Ovashvili (Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe winner)
Germany: Die geliebten Schwestern (Beloved Sisters), Dominik Graf (Berlinale)
Greece: Μικρά Αγγλία Mikra Anglia (Little England), Pantelis Voulgaris (Shanghai IFF Golden Goblet Award winner)

Hong Kong: 黄金时代 Huang jin shi dai (The Golden Era), Ann Hui (Biennale)
Hungary: Fehér isten (White God), Kornél Mundruczó (Cannes Un Certain Regard award winner)

Iceland: Vonarstræti (Life in a Fishbowl), Baldvin Zophoníasson
India: लायर्स डाइस Liar's Dice, Geetu Mohandas (Rotterdam)
Indonesia: Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka (Soekarno), Hanung Bramantyo
Iran: امروز Emrouz (Today), Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi
Iraq: مردان Mardan, Batin Ghobadi
Ireland: An Bronntanas (The Gift), Tom Collins
Israel: גט Gett (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem), Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabet (Cannes Directors' Fornight)
Italy: Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital), Paolo Virzì

Japan: そこのみにて光輝く Soko nomi nite hikari kagayaku (The Light Shines Only There), Mipo Oh (Montreal WFF Best Director winner)

Kosovo: Tri dritare dhe një varje (Three Windows and a Hanging), Isa Qosja (SarajevoFF)
Kyrgyzstan: Құрманжан Датқа Kurmanjan Datka (Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains), Sadyk Sher-Niyaz (Montreal)

Latvia: Akmeņi manās kabatās (Rocks in My Pockets), Signe Baumane (animation) (Karlovy Vary)
Lebanon: غدي Ghadi, Amin Dora
Lithuania: Lošėjas (The Gambler), Ignas Jonynas (Tallin Black Nights 2013)
Luxembourg: Never Die Young, Pol Cruchten (documentary)

Macedonia: До балчак Do Balcak (To the Hilt), Stole Popov
Malta: Simshar, Rebecca Cremona
Mauritania: Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako (Cannes)
Mexico: Cantinflas, Sebastián del Amo
Moldova: La limita de jos a cerului (The Unsaved), Igor Cobileanski (Karlovy Vary 2013 - FIPRESCI award winner at CottbusIFF)
Montenegro: Dječaci iz Ulice Marksa i Engelsa (The Boys from Marx and Engels Street), Nikole Vukčevića
Morocco: القمر الأحمر La Lune Rouge (The Red Moon), Hassan Benjelloun

Nepal: ‘झोला’ Jhola, Yadav Kumar Bhattarai
Netherlands: Lucia de B. (Accused), Paula van der Oest
New Zealand: The Dead Lands, Toa Fraser
Norway: 1001 gram (1001 Grams), Bent Hamer

Pakistan: دختر، بیٹی Dukhtar (Daughter), Afia Nathaniel
Palestine: عيون الحرامية Eyes of a Thief, Najwa Najjar
Panama: Invasión (Invasion), Abner Benaim (documentary)
Peru: El Evangelio de la Carne (The Gospel of the Flesh), Eduardo Mendoza de Echave
Philippines: Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, the End of History), Lav Diaz (Cannes Un Certain Regard)
Poland: Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski (London Film Festival)
Portugal: E Agora? Lembra-me (What Now? Remind Me), Joaquim Pinto (documentary) (Locarno 2013)

Romania: Câinele Japonez (The Japanese Dog), Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (San Sebastian 2013)
Russia: Левиафан Leviathan, Andrey Zvyagintsev (Cannes)

Serbia: Montevideo, vidimo se! (See You in Montevideo), Dragana Bjelogrlića
Singapore: Sayang disayang (My Beloved Dearest), Sanif Olek
Slovakia: Krok do tmy (A Step Into The Dark), Miloslav Luther (Montreal)
Slovenia: Zapelji me (Seduce Me), Marko Šantić (Warsaw IFF 2013)
South Africa: Elelwani, Ntshaveni Wa Luruli
South Korea: 해무 Haemoo (Sea Fog), Shim Sung-bo
Spain: Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (Living is Easy with Eyes Closed), David Trueba
Sweden: Turist (Force Majeure), Ruben Östlund (Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner)
Switzerland: Der Kreis (The Circle), Stefan Haupt (Berlinale-Teddy Award for Best Documentary winner)

Taiwan: 冰毒 Bing du (Ice Poison), Midi Z (Berlinale-Panorama)
Thailand: คิดถึงวิทยา Khid thueng withaya (Teacher's Diary), Nithiwat Tharathorn
Turkey: Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Cannes Palm d'Or Winner)

UK: Uzun Yol (Little Happiness), Nihat Seven
Ukraine: Поводырь Povodyr (The Guide), Oles Sanin
Uruguay: Mr. Kaplan, Alvaro Brechner

Venezuela: Libertador (The Liberator), Alberto Arvelo

Watch trailers @MOC and to see movie posters go to Storyteller tumblr.

To check original announcements go to Pinterest 2015 Oscar Foreign Film Category here.



Comments
From 9/7/14
With 20+ submissions we can clearly see that this year the Academy's Foreign Language Film Award committee members will have an incredible good cinema feast as they will be able to savor the best of the best of Cannes 2014 plus more festival award winners that we know have high quality filmmaking and add more films by very well-known directors as the icing in a very big cake. Oh yes, this year I really wish I was a member of this committee.

We still have 50+ countries that have to announce their submissions, so I am expecting more Cannes and other major world festivals films coming to enhance this incredible good list of great films, all in one place for a few men (think there is no woman in the committee) to see.

We know that is not easy to guess what committee members like as from previous years, the shortlist of nine films always has one, two or more films that makes you wonder the committee criteria to have them in the shortlist and to ignore excellent films. But we always have hope that with the still "new" procedure, this year the shortlist of nine will include many of the films that have already been announced as they have great above the average filmmaking quality. If it was for me the shortlist of nine already has six films that for sure HAVE to be in there, can you guess them?

Not everything is good news as we already have a couple of controversies with young filmmakers protesting Bulgaria selection as seems that the "old" traditions prevail against industry favorites from younger filmmakers. Selection film director actually is a member of the council that selects the submission, so in a way as a twitter says: "he selected himself". Still, there are many that celebrate decision as believe film will get a nomination. Sigh.

But for us World cinema lovers this list will always represent the opportunity to know and hopefully eventually see the best cinema from all over the world, especially from those countries that with their Oscar submission actually are promoting their local cinema. Cheers!

---///---

From 8/4/14
The first Monday in August brings us the first country to announce its submission: Turkey. As many -including me- were expecting Turkey sent the Cannes Palm d'Or winner Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

As far as I can tell there are no major changes to Rule Thirteen Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award, but here are some highlight from Rule 13.

Definition: A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominately non-English dialogue track.

Eligibility (extract): Films that, in any version, receive a nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution before their first qualifying theatrical release will not be eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to: Broadcast and cable television, PPV/VOD, DVD distribution, Internet transmission.

Voting (extract): All submissions sent to the Academy will be screened by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Committee(s). After the screenings, the committee(s) will vote by secret ballot to nominate five foreign language motion pictures for this award. Final voting for the Foreign Language Film award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members who have viewed all five motion pictures nominated for the award.

The Weekly Movie Watch Volume 7

This week I watched Pet Sematary, The Raid: Redemption, Closed Circuit.

I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.

Pet Sematary - A graveyard next to an ancient burial ground? Seems harmless to me.

Pet Sematary (1989)
Watch Pet Sematary
Written by: Stephen King (screenplay, story)
Directed by: Mary Lambert
Starring: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne
Rated: R

Plot:
A family lives near an ancient Native American burial ground that harbors great power. The power of life... and death.

Review:

A graveyard setting has become cliche. I have to ask, do they ever watch that kid? You're twenty feet from a roard you know is dangerous, put a leash on the kid. The level of over-acting is incredibly high, which is par for horror movies. It's not bad for a fright.
It depends.

The Raid: Redemption - An action film in a class of it's own.

Serbuan Maut aka The Raid: Redemption (2011) 
Watch The Raid: Redemption 
Written by: Gareth Evans
Directed by: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy
Rated: R

Plot:
A S.W.A.T. team trapped in a tenement building, has no choice but to fight their way out.

Redemption:
The Raid is a movie that knows exactly what it is and what to do. The story is light, but the action is stunning, make no mistake this movie is pure action. The story allows you to catch your breath and prepare for the next round. It's some of the best fight choreography I've ever seen. Nothing more to say than well done.
Watch it.

Closed Circuit - Yeah, no.

Closed Circuit (2013)
Watch Closed Circuit
Written by: Steven Knight (screenplay)
Directed by: John Crowley
Starring: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Jim Broadbent  
Rated: R

Plot:
Two lawyers' lives are endangered when they take on a high profile terrorism case.

Review:

Lots of twists and turns, but it never reaches full potential. The implications for terrorism are timely. It is in the same vein as Arlington Road, though it lacks in every measurable way. The movie never connects. If you ever see it coming on, quickly change the channel... for your own sake.
Skip it.

71st Venice Film Festival Award Winners

The ceremony is over and the live streaming finished when Roy Andersson went out to the red carpet section to receive people's cheers and photographers craziness. As soon as Rai TV uploads the award ceremony video will embed it at the end of the post.

As far as I was able to read allover the net, not many were expecting Roy Andersson's film to win the Golden Lion as many were expecting The Look of Silence to win to have for the first time two documentaries winning in a row (last year Golden Lion is a documentary). But I'm very glad the Golden Lion went to the third installment of a trilogy that will have a fourth film (lol - is true) and can't wait to watch the 3rd and 4th installments. Sigh. Know Andersson's movies are VERY special and surely an acquired taste but if you love Scandinavian dead pan/coldish/slow-ish fantastic films, then I know you will enjoy Andersson's films.

The HUGE surprise for me comes from finding that Elio Germano did not win la Copa Volpi and that went to an American actor that has done a few independent movies, was NOT there to receive in person the award and should have been there NO matter what as he just had his career go to an upper level.

This year the festival did not excite me as there were not much movies that called my attention and the ones that did were already in my to-watch queue as I see "everything" by those directors. Hope next year La Mostra becomes a much more interesting festival for cinema lovers and public in general.

Addio ci vediamo alla prossima edizione. Ciao.

Venezia71

Golden Lion for Best Film: En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence), Roy Andersson, Sweden, Germany, Norway and France

Jury Grand Prix: The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and UK

Special Jury Prize: Sivas, Kaan Müjdeci, Turkey

Silver Lion for Best Director: Andrei Konchalovsky for Белые ночи почтальона Алексея Тряпицын Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna (The Postman's White Nights),Russia

Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Alba Rohrwacher in Hungry Hearts, Saverio Constanzo, Italy
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Adam Driver in Hungry Hearts, Saverio Constanzo, Italy
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Romain Paul in Le dernier coup de marteau (The Last Hammer Blow), Alix Delaporte, France

Osella for Best Screenplay: Rakhshan Banietemad & Farid Mostafavi for قصه ها Ghesseha (Tales), Rakhshan Bani E'temād, Iran

Lion of the Future – Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film: Court, Chaitanya Tamhane, India

Orizzonti Awards

Best Film: Court, Chaitanya Tamhane, India
Special Jury Prize: Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana, Franco Maresco, Italy
Best Director: Naji Abu Nowar for Theeb, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, UK
Special Award for Best Actor or Actress: Emir Hadžihafizbegović in Tavka Su Pravila (These are the Rules), Ognjen Sviličić, Croatia, France, Serbia and Macedonia
Best Short Film: Maryam, Sidi Saleh, Indonesia
Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards: Pat-Lehem (Daily Bread), Idan Hubel, Israel,

Venezia Classici
Best Documentary: Animata Resistencia, Francesco Montagner and Alberto Girotto, Italy
Best Restored Film: Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day), Ettore Scola, Italy and Canada, 1977

Autonomous Sections

11th Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days

Venice Days Award: Retour a Ithaque, Laurent Cantet, France and Belgium
Europa Cinemas Label: I Nostri Ragazzi (The Dinner), Ivano De Matteo, Italy
SIAE Awards
Innovation Award: The Show MAS Go On, Rä di Martino, Italy
Special Prize: Gomorra TV miniseries, Stefano Sollima and Riccardo Tozzi, Italy
People's Choice Awards: Mita Tova (The Farewell Party), Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, Israel and Germany

29th Settimana Internazionale Della Critica - Venice International Film Critics Week
Raro Video Audience Award: Ničije dete (No One's Child), Vuk Ršumović, Serbia and Croatia

Collateral Awards

FIPRESCI Award
Best Film of Venezia 71: The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and UK
Best film of Orizzonti and International Critics' Week: Ničije dete (No One's Child), Vuk Ršumović, Serbia and Croatia

SIGNIS Award: Loin des Hommes (Far From Men), David Oelhoffen, France
Special Mention: 99 Homes, Ramin Bahrani, USA

CICAE Award: Heaven Knows What, Josh Safdie and Ben Safdie, USA and France

FEDEORA Awards (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean)
Venezia71
Best Euro-Mediterranean Film: The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and UK
Giornate degli Autori - Venice days
Best Film: Il-dae-il (One on One), Kim Ki-duk, South Korea
Best Director of a Debut Film: Asha Jaoar Majhe (Labor of Love), Adityavikram Sengupta, India
Settimana Internazionale della Critica
Best Film: Đập cánh giữa không trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere), Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp, Vietnam, France, Norway and Germany
Best Cinematography: Ničije dete (No One's Child), Vuk Ršumović, Serbia and Croatia

Akai International Film Fest Prizes
Best Film: Anime Nere (Black Souls), Francesco Munzi, Italy and France
Film Revelation: 殯棺 Binguan (The Coffin in the Mountain), Xin Yukun, China
Best Actress: Iaia Forte in three films La Vita Oscena, Il Giovane Meraviglioso and The Show MAS Go On
Best Actor: Jacopo Olmo Antinori in I Nostri Ragazzi (The Dinner), Ivano De Matteo, Italy
Best Film Critic: Beatrice Fiorentino, journalist of Il Piccolo of Trieste.

ArcaCinemaGiovani Award
Best Film Venezia71: Loin des Hommes (Far From Men), David Oelhoffen, France
Best Italian Film: Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana, Franco Maresco, Italy

FEDIC Award: Io Sto Con La Sposa, Antonio Auguliaro, Gabriele del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry, Iran and Palestine
Special Mention: Un Giorno da Italini (Italy in a Day), Gabriele Salvatores, Italy and UK

Francesco Pasinetti Awards
Best Film: Anime Nere (Black Souls), Francesco Munzi, Italy and France
Best Actors: Elio Germano in Il Giovane Favoloso and Alba Rohrwacher in Hungry Hearts
Special Award: Saverio Costanzo director of Hungry Hearts, Italy
Special Award: Pierfrancesco Favino actor and producer of Senza Nessuna Pietà, Michele Alhaique, Italy
Special Award: Ivano de Matteo for I nostri ragazzi (The Dinner), Italy

Future Film Festival Digital Award: Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, USA and France
Special Mention: Un Giorno da Italini (Italy in a Day), Gabriele Salvatores, Italy and UK

Human Rights Nights Award (tie):
Io Sto Con La Sposa, Antonio Auguliaro, Gabriele del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry, Iran and Palestine
The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and UK

Online Critics Award
Mouse d'Oro for Best Film in Competition: The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and UK
Mouse d'Argento for Best Film out of competition: Olive Kittertidge, Lisa Cholodenko, USA (TV mini series)

Young Jury Members of the Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Awards
Best Film: 99 Homes, Ramin Bahrani, USA
Special Mention: The Cut, Fatih Akin, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Poland and Turkey
Best Actor: Elio Germano in Il Giovane Favoloso, Mario Martone, Italy

AssoMusica "Ho visto una canzone" Award: to the song Just One Day from the film Un Giorno da Italini (Italy in a Day), Gabriele Salvatores, Italy and UK
Best Innovative Budget Award: Un Giorno da Italini (Italy in a Day), Gabriele Salvatores, Italy and UK
Brian Award-UAAR: Mita Tova (The Farewell Party), Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, Israel and Germany
Cinecibo Award: I Nostri Ragazzi (The Dinner), Ivano De Matteo, Italy
Cinema for Unicef Award: Hungry Hearts, Saverio Costanzo, Italy
Civitas Vitae prossima Award: Dancing with Maria, Ivan Gergolet, Italy, Argentina and Slovenia
Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award: Luigi Musini for Anime Nere (Black Souls), Francesco Munzi, Italy and France
Gillo Pontecorvo Arcobaleno Latino Award: The Show MAS Go On, Rä di Martino, Italy
Green Drop Award: Белые ночи почтальона Алексея Тряпицын Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna (The Postman's White Nights), Andrei Konchalovsky, Russia
Interfilm Award: Loin des Hommes (Far From Men), David Oelhoffen, France
Lanterna Magica Award CGS: Le dernier coup de marteau (The Last Hammer Blow), Alix Delaporte, France
Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola Award: Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, USA and France
Open Award: The Show MAS Go On, Rä di Martino, Italy
Padre Nazareno Taddei Award: Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, USA and France
Piero Piccioni Award: to the soundtrack of Il Giovane Favoloso, Mario Martone, Italy
Queer Lion: Les nuits d'été, Mario Fanfani, France
Schermi di qualità Award: Anime Nere (Black Souls), Francesco Munzi, Italy and France
Sorriso diverso Venezia 2014 Award: Io Sto Con La Sposa, Antonio Auguliaro, Gabriele del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry, Iran and Palestine
Soundtrack Stars Award: Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, USA and France

Final Cut Awards (Post-production support)
The Council, Yahya Alabdallah, Jordan an UAE
A Maid for Each, Maher Abi Samra, Lebanon, France and Norway
Possessed , Djinn, Dalia Al Kury, Jordan and Germany
Rollaball, Eddie Edwards, South Africa and Ghana

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Frederick Wiseman and Thelma Schoonmaker
Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award: James Franco
L'Oreal Paris per il Cinema Award: Valentina Corti
Persol Visionary Award: Frances McDormand

Red Carpet with Interviews - 17 minutes to practice your Italian.



Awards Ceremony

8th Queer Lion Award Winner

Yesterday the jury for the 2014 Queer Lion Award bestows the award for Best Film with Homosexual Issues and Queer Culture to Les nuits d'été, directed by Mario Fanfani, presented at the 11th edition of Venice Days.

Jury Statement
The pursuit of one's own identity is always a revolutionary act! It is so for the main character, when donning women's clothing while maintaining his bourgeois beliefs; it is so for his wife, through her emancipation and pacifistic ideals; and it is so for all the other characters, each of them in their own personal way, in a queer movie that manages to mix tradition and transgression in a very elegant manner.

The award will be presented at the awards ceremony of the 11th edition of Venice Days.

---8/19/14---

The eighth edition of Queer Lion, the collateral award of 71. Venice International Film Festival dedicated to movies "with homosexual themes or queer interest", has this year the patronage of the Presidency of the Cabinet – Department for Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Veneto Region, Province of Venice, Venice Municipality and the National Union of Italian Film Critics.

Created by Francesco Gangemi, this year’s award poster is an homage to the 75th anniversary of Victor Fleming’s cult movie The Wizard of Oz.

No short films competition but worth mentioning because the LGTB interest are Rami Yasin’s short film Fi al waqt al dae'a (In Overtime) in Orizzonti and Paola Randi’s episode in the collective movie 9X10 Novanta in Venice Days. Seven movies are competing for the award this year and as happens too often, most films have some degree of gay interest while perhaps there is only one film that could have some lesbian interest, sigh.

Venezia71
Pasolini, Abel Ferrara, France, Belgium and Italy (G)

11 Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days
Métamorphoses, Christophe Honoré, France (G)
Mita Tova (Farewell Party), Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit, Israel (G?)
*Les Nuits d'été, Mario Fanfani, France (G) Winner
The Goob, Guy Myhill, UK (G)
The Smell of Us, Larry Clark, France (G)

29 Settimana Internazionale della Critica
Đập cánh giữa không trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere), Nguyên Hoàng Diep, Vietnam, France, Norway, Germany (L?)

Jury
President: Alessandro Zan member of the Italian Parliament, working in the Commission for Environment of the Parliament, and LGBT rights activist.
Daniel N. Casagrande, creator of the Queer Lion Award,
Marco Busato, General Delegate of the cultural association CinemArte

Special Events

- Queer Lion of Honor
Queer Lion organizers will bestow a Queer Lion of Honor to Ettore Scola's Una Giornata Particulare (A Special Day) that will be screened in this year fest with a restored version. Organizers statement:

Regardless of its own artistic merits, the movie represents a true milestone for the international LGBT culture because in years when “politically correct” was still something yet to come, it managed to create a story centering on a dignified, positive main homosexual character, in an absolutely bold and unprecedented way for Italian cinema.

Director Ettore Scola already stated he will joyfully accept the award, that will be handed out during the 71. Venice Film Fest

-Video On Demand Screening
There will be a VOD project on the Open Reel web portal  that will screen 3 films that were screened at other festivals and have some LGBT content. These are the three films you can see from September 5th on.

Noordzee, Texas (North Sea Texas) by Bavo Defurne, Belgium, 2011, (winner of the Alice Nella Città Award at the Rome Film Festival) (G)
Lose Your Head by Stefan Westerwelle and Patrick Schuckmann, Germany, 2013  (Berlinale Panorama) (G)
Test by Chris Mason Johnson, USA, 2013 (Berlinale Panorama) (G)

Award ceremony will be on September 4th at 18:00 local time. The Queer Lion will be presented along other collateral awards like Fedeora Award, Label Europa Cinemas, Venice Days Award, BNL Audience Award. If you wish to read the news at the official site go here.

Watch some trailers and movie info @MOC

A Long Post About #GamerGate

Okay. So, right upfront, I feel like I need to say that I’m posting this to my own blogs on my own time under my own name and my own name only because its coming 100% from me. It’s got nothing to do with any person I work for or any of the websites/outlets/etc my work appears on. Nobody asked me to write this, nobody asked me not to write it, and you shouldn’t take anything I have to say as either endorsement or rejection of anything any other person or entity has said or not said on the matter – personally or as a matter of policy. Being a grownup, I’m perfectly capable and willing to work for and alongside people who disagree with me, so long as it’s amicable and mutually respectful. I have done so in the past, and I expect to do so in the future.

So…

The #GamerGate thing would seem to have gotten wildly out of hand, but that implies that it was ever “in hand” to begin with. Given that the entire thing began with a jilted boyfriend posting still yet-unproven allegations of his girlfriend cheating on him to the internet and only became a “gaming story” because the accused was an indie developer and one of the alleged paramours was a games journalist, thus giving the semblance of weight to otherwise outlandish long-held theories about how “arty” indie games are so beloved by (parts of) the gaming press but so commonly rejected by so-called “core gamers”… well, I question whether something with those beginnings can be said to have ever been “in hand” in the first place.

I can already hear some people jumping up to tell me that that’s not what it’s “really” about, that the origins were “just a spark,” etc. I hear you, and I will answer you. Keep reading, this is a long one – hence the blog instead of Twitter/Facebook/whatever.

It’s hard for me to “objective” about the organized campaign of harassment going on via social media, both before and now through the #GamerGate stuff. Mostly because so much of it is being launched against people who are my friends and colleagues, but also because it’s difficult for me to even find a proper way to respond – hence why I’ve occasionally been seen to resort to harsh language, angry name-calling or simply retweeting the anguish I’m seeing from others (those first two I’ve apologized for already, the third demands none.) The reason for my difficult is simple: To the degree that #GamerGate, or at least parts of it, aren’t just a loosely-organized blunderbuss being used shove female, LGBT, liberal/progressive etc voices out of game journalism; it seems instead to be seeking a solutions that can’t be implemented to combat a problem that doesn’t exist – or at least doesn’t exist to the degree that some believe it does.

THE ISSUE:

The demand, we’re told, is for an end to “corruption.” But the fractured nature of this so-called movement has made it abundantly clear that there’s no one single definition of “corruption” that seems to satisfy every complaint. You begin to get the sense that “corruption” or “lack of integrity” have become buzzwords seized onto by a coalition that knows it wouldn’t get the same attention or presumption of seriousness if they simply yelled “Pay attention to me and tell me my input matters!!!” into the void, even though that’s what’s down at the heart of it all – and, frankly, games journalism should have seen this part of it coming.

As has been elaborated on at length by others elsewhere, at the root of the problems many people see in the gaming press is the fact that it began as and still very much is “enthusiast journalism,” meaning that the existing structures and many of the most entrenched, powerful, respected individuals and entities therein started out from a place largely more of awe and eagerness than skepticism and a desire to turn over rocks and dig through garbage: People who loved video games and thus already thought they mattered and were important writing largely for an audience that already agreed on that point. See also: Sportswriters. Different lyrics, same tune.

What this means (in part – just clipped out a lengthy digression about another part because it was straying off-topic, may revisit if there’s room) is that it’s a type of press that’s innately invested in a narrative of reinforced positivity on two fronts: Not just reassuring the medium “you are important enough for there to be journalism devoted to you,” but also telling the audience (or helping the audience tell itself) that “this thing that means so much to you is important enough to have journalism devoted to it.” In the early days of gaming fandom – particularly before the (mainstream-available) internet – being able to leaf through a big thick “real magazine” like GamePro or EGM or even Nintendo Power was reassuring unto itself: “They made a whole magazine about games! Pages and pages of maps and reviews and columns and news! With writers and editors – just like they make for big important stuff like sports or politics or movies! Video games matter! This proves it!”

And just as the number one rule of “playing ball” with the makers of the product being covered is to never make them feel disrespected, the number one rule of reassuring an enthusiast press’s readership is to continually reinforce their sense of self-worth and importance: Don’t tell your audience that they are a problem, or should change their behavior, or anything else like that – even if it happens to be true.

Helpfully, for a long time you’d have been hard-pressed to find an instance where “gamers” (though we weren’t called that yet) were really a problem of any real kind. They were the niche “dedicated” customers of a niche medium that existed mainly in arcade cabinets set up as time-wasters in roller-rinks and pizza shops or on PCs and/or dedicated consoles that only some households ever owned; mostly kids, teenagers and tech-hobbyists adults. The only reassuring we needed – craved, in fact – was that games weren’t stupid and that we weren’t wasting our time with them; and if you could tell us that in the form of a caricatured “take that!” to a parent, teacher or authority figure who’d ever insisted otherwise? All the better.

THE WAR:

As I once offered as an explanation for the confrontational state of some gamers (among which I included myself) in a friendly conversation with a woman famous for socio-political analysis of video games (yes, probably the one you’re thinking of) that you can’t understand “gamer culture” without looking at it as a post-war veteranocracy. The entire notion of “gamer identity” as a singular thing (as opposed to “Nintendo fans,” “Sega fans,” “PC game fans,” etc) didn’t really exist until the 1990s, and it coalesced for one reason: The Censorship Wars. There was a very real possibility that figures like Jack Thompson were going to convince actual legal authorities to restrict or otherwise “clamp down” on video-game violence and the like, and only by assembling into a single unified front and pushing back were we able to hold it back from happening.

We won, but it’s now clear that the victory came at a terrible price: Since any criticism of games from a socio-political standpoint from “outsiders” was inevitably going to be seized on by Thompson etc as “evidence,” we trained ourselves to respond to such criticism in only one way: “No it doesn’t. You’re wrong. Games effect nothing. It’s just games. Go away.”

I think that was necessary at the time, in the same way that I think sometimes “civil disobedience” protests about far more important things DO have to break a window or vandalize a wall sometimes to get the point across: It was a “war,” at least as much of one as the situation could allow, we did what we had to do at the time. But afterwards, we should’ve turned it off. We should’ve moderated and figured out how to move our newly-minted “culture” forward. But we did not. Instead, we (“we” here meaning the presumed supermajority of self-professed “gamers”) contentedly let games grow bigger and bigger but not appreciably more thoughtful or (content-wise) diverse either in subject matter or development while we rested on our laurels – the rest of the media and academia paid us no mind because games were just dopey teenage boy stuff, and we were fine with that because the media and academia brought talk of politics and “isms” and we were just trying to have our escapism.

And we thought we were all together on that, still.

THE WAR AT HOME

So when people like Anita Sarkeesian showed up, it wasn’t so much like a bomb going off but a shade being flung open. For what it’s worth, while I consider Mrs. Sarkeesian a friendly acquaintance and I support her work, I don’t necessarily agree with every conclusion reached or theory presented in the Tropes vs Women videos. That having been said, I also don’t see what about them is supposed to be so frightening or “radical.” The points she’s both making and jumping off from are fairly mild and uncontroversial in any other context: Introduction to Feminist Theory 101 as-filtered through video games. In any case, my observation is that the “discussion” that each video touches off is actually the most helpful/interesting thing about them.

Like I said, a curtain being flung open: The light fills up the dark room, and suddenly you can see that everything isn’t as pretty as you might have thought. The truth gets revealed – and in this case the “truth” was not necessarily “ALL GAMEZ R TEH SEXIST!” but that “we” weren’t quite as unified as we’d let ourselves believe. As it turned out, there were people in “gamer culture” who already weren’t happy about a lot of the things Sarkeesian and others were talking about, and now had occasion to let the rest of us know. Ever been told that something about you or that you’ve been doing is making a friend feel uncomfortable and you’d never had the inkling that had been the case until just then? It’s not a good feeling, whether you think there’s “merit” to their discomfort or not.

That many of those speaking up were journalists of people working on the fringes of the industry was inevitable for many factors (let’s not mince words: Big-time gaming is an aggressively masculine business, and so the indie and “art game” scene is packed with women and LGBT folks for whom that’s not just the ground floor but the space where they’ll have the most opportunity), but it made the schism that much easier: “Real” gamers – the kind who played the traditional money-making hits that had turned the industry from a niche to a powerhouse – versus “those other gamers;” with the added bonus of this happening during a smaller, pettier “war” between casual and “hardcore” that had been fought in the forums during the rise and tapering-off of the Wii phenomenon. Your classic snobs versus slobs fight, but with a socio-economic inversion: “Snobs” that include mostly small devs and chronically underpaid writers versus “Slobs” (of the positively self-indentified “Caddyshack” variety) mainly constituting people with disposable income and the billion-dollar game companies who make their favorite games.

But as to the journalists?

THE “CONSPIRACY”

I understand how #GamerGate came to believe in the conspiracy theory that underpinned the first wave of the movement: “Gamer Culture” was, until recently (within the last decade or less, really) used to games journalism being more or less in line with itself ideologically, if not on every game. After all, game journalism in its present state has only really existed as long as “gamers” have, and for awhile it was a great double act: “I grew up playing Nintendo/Sega!” “As did I!” “Cool! That means your opinion is likely similar to mine! How’s this game?” “Here’s a graphics-number, a gameplay-number, a story-number and a total score!” “Thanks!” Simple as that.

But that’s the thing about criticism-as-journalism: Even if you come into it with the equivalent experience and taste of the average consumer, doing it for a living and experiencing more of the medium in a different way will inevitably change the way you look at it. This is why film critics are so eager to delve into independent cinema and foreign films and anything even slightly different from the norm: We watch more movies than the average person and we get sick of formula and familiarity faster. How many blockbusters did you see this summer? I saw them all, even the bad ones – I don’t need to see another actor outrun a green-screened fireball until at least the next Hobbit movie… and I like green-screened fireballs!

So it’s not surprising that the same would happen to the still young and evolving field of games criticism: All those mediocre Call of Duty, God of War and Assassin’s Creed clones you didn’t play because they got universally bad scores? Game critics played them. Is it really unbelievable that after doing that all damn day stuff like Flower, Gone Home, Journey, Depression Quest, etc would jump out at them and feel incredibly refreshing just by virtue of being different? The seeming affection for “social justice” (read: “liberal, but I’m not going to say ‘liberal’ as a slam because that’s what my FoxNews loving dad says and I’m totally not him because he’s all Jesusy and I read Dawkins!”) subjects like diversity and LGBT rights? Well, let’s be frank here: People coming from an academia background, especially in art/culture fields even including gaming… they tend to fall on the “progressive” side of things. You know it, I know, it is what it is.

I also get that, well… let me re-post a portion of a comment I left on a forum on the subject:

“90% of what any journalist (or critic, if we're being technical) will ever report on will involve people. Reporting on people means you have to talk to people, and talking to people often means for relationships of one kind or another to facilitate more direct, deeper discussion. Said simply: Sportswriters tend to become friends (and also enemies!) with athletes, coaches, managers, owners, etc. Food writers tend to do the same with chefs, cooks, vendors, etc. Film critics? Actors, directors, producers, technicians, grips, you name it. News reporters? Politicians, speechwriters, security personnel... you get the idea. These relationships are not just an unavoidable (if you're trying to do a good job) they are where much of the journalism comes from. When a news anchor says "sources tell us" or "insiders say," the "source" or "insider" they're talking about is generally not a bug on a telephone (that's illegal, in fact) or someone from their network crouched inside a crawlspace listening in on important business - it's a person they know, from whom they get information. Without exaggeration, this is how many if not most of the biggest and most-important news stories ever broken got broken.

It also means, yes, that journalists (being human) will occasionally have blind spots or a perspective colored by who they know and like - which is why you should get your information from as many sources as possible in order to get the most complete view possible.”

So… yeah. I get why people who don’t either work IN journalism or are only particularly passionate about one form thereof can look at things writers being on friendly terms (or more) with people in the medium they cover and see a shadow-conspiracy collaborating to push certain types of games or games of certain themes or “agendas”… but honestly, I’m looking and all I see is the regular bog-standard mechanics of an arts/entertainment journo community chugging along. You don’t have to like it – frankly, too much “like-mindedness” in media ISN’T a good thing, that I agree with – but that doesn’t make it The Illuminati.

Oh, and one more thing: As to “Death of The Gamer” thing? The language was probably needlessly harsh given the volatility of the moment… but I get where that was coming from. Seeing the mainstream media (or at least other parts of the “geek media”) put the spotlight on bad behavior by core gamers in the same timeframe as those statistics about half of gamers being adult women after all? I can see and even very much sympathize with some game critics getting excited at the prospect of having an audience of more diverse tastes to write for – an opportunity to write something beyond “Decent graphics, gameplay could use tightening, not as fresh as last year’s installment, 7/10” and still earn a living – and wanting to will it into existence.

I mean, as a film critic… if the “movie audience” was aligned as such that my reader/viewership wanted to hear about Transformers, The Expendables and NOTHING ELSE? And then I got the inkling that there was a chance the dam could break and I could suddenly ALSO be writing for people who might like to hear about Woody Allen or Werner Herzog once in awhile? Yeah, I might be inclined to get excited and preemptively dance on the “grave” of what’s already just a silly marketing label anyway. Inartful? Sure, but I get it.

THE DANGER

As mad as I am at seeing #GamerGate being used (either by design, by co-opting or by scattershot aim) to push good writers and devs out of gaming… I’m not “worried” for most of them. Good writers will find work, and if gaming refuses to be a safe space for them (no, dealing with psychopathic harassment is not “the toll” for being a person on The Internet, and if it is we should not accept it) they may be happier working in another medium. I hate the abuse, I hate the harassment, and that’s why I’ve occasionally said some harsh things to the abusers and harassers. I’m human.

But what worries me almost as much and definitely makes me as mad and depressed is what this means for video games. Spoiler: It ain’t good. Gaming is in a pretty stagnant, going-through-the-motions place right now – to the point that NINTENDO games, even though the company has been aesthetically jogging in place for almost 20 years, now look and feel radical compared to how homogenous everything else looks and feels. But at least people are trying. You can see, between the margins of the Assassins Creed games or in the fuck-it-all weirdness of Saints Row, that there are people INSIDE this creatively-mummified industry struggling to be better and more interesting – and you can see the people in the indie/art scene who, if given the chance, will help that cause as they gradually bleed into the mainstream scene. You can see members of the gaming press ACHING for better, fresher, more interesting stuff to turn their readers onto.

If “we” chase that out now –if #GamerGate is really going to plant this flag and say “No politics, no deeper themes, no difficult subject matter, just more shooty-shooty-jump-jump-chest-high-wall and power-fantasies for insecure teenage boys because that’s REAL video games” and chase out (regardless of whether that’s the intent) different voices and opposite perspectives as collateral-damage in a “war” against some nebulous phantom of “corruption?” That’s not good. We will lose an ENTIRE generation of the developers who will make the games that bring gaming to the next artistic and cultural level, AND we will lose an entire generation of the writers and journalists who will write the criticism that will make the world take a second look at this medium and realize there is worth and value here after all. Francois Truffaut, Jean luc Goddard and “Cahiers du Cinema” made the world realize that “Hollywood junk” like noir detective films were actually great art – wouldn’t it be great if an outside-the-box game critic were to show the world that Mortal Kombat was actually a work of subversive genius? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to lose that.

Furthermore, while I support the right of gaming sites and other outlets to “go after” as big or small an audience as they want AND understand the (short-term) business logic of catering to “real gamers” at the expense of “casuals” or emerging audiences in terms of marketing or editorial style/policy… I also think those that do MIGHT be hurting themselves, in the long run. “Gamers” like me are a big audience right now, yes, but guys in their early 30s with disposable income become guys in their late-40s with bills and expenses faster than you think, so there’s both a ceiling and a time limit on THIS particular money-spigot. Ask yourself: Would you rather be IMAGE Comics, unstoppably huge for just under a decade only to collapse into a niche/nostalgia shell of your former glory when the party ends? Or would you rather be MARVEL Comics: Friendly to longterm fans but also aggressively courting new audiences and new outlets, and as a result the biggest and most powerful entertainment brand in the world right now? That doesn’t seem like a hard choice to me.

This is probably too long. I hope you read all the way down. I love video games. I loved what they were when I was a kid, I like what they are now with some MAJOR reservations and I’m hopeful about what they can become… but now I’m also worried about what they can fail to become if this current insanity goes on much longer.

Games journalism is imperfect, but there’s no conspiracy and what some have convinced themselves is a conspiracy (the “pushing” of indie/art/progressive-themed games) I see as (when done in good faith, to be clear) a common critics desire to better/broaden their own medium. People critiquing what they see as systemic, unwelcoming flaws in the medium are not they enemy, even if “we” disagree with them. A bigger, more diverse industry’s worth of games for a bigger, broader audience doesn’t mean YOUR demo has to “die” even if some critic jokingly snarks in that direction.

We can be better. We need to choose to be better. I hope we do.

Thank you for your time,

Bob Chipman.

Not Dead

So. Only just occured to me that I haven't updated this is in a bit. Oops.

Obviously, I imagine most of my readership is aware that anyone who works in or adjacent to gaming has been wrapped up in a stupid controversy that, while it hasn't impacted ANY work or work-situations for me thus far has been pretty draining, psychically - at the end of the day, I've just wanted to sleep when not working or doing things to get away from the web.

Also, while the details are frankly my business and my business alone and I ask that this be respected, the fact is that along with my professional obligations my life for the fall and Winter is going to be well and fully occupied by matters personal - most very, very happy; others much less so, both likely to consume a great deal of my time and energy. I will continue to update this blog (and the OverThinker blog once the next episode is completed), but if you see me "vanish" for a day or three here or there, don't worry (or celebrate, depending on your reasons for coming here in the first place.)

Anyway, here's the most-recent BIG PICTURE. My apologies for the delays, again:

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Dumbsday, Part 2 - The Reign of the Supermen

2014 European Film Academy People's Choice Award

Today EFA announced the six (6) films that will compete for the 2014 People's Choice Awards and consequently opened the voting process that allows film fans across Europe to elect their favorite film. This year when you vote you will enter to win the chance to join the 27th European Film Awards Ceremony in Riga, Latvia on Saturday December 13, 2014.

To all my European readers strongly suggest you vote for your favorite film. Even when nominees include some extraordinary films, my vote undoubtedly goes to absolutely fantastic and very complete cinematic experience: Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski.

To Vote go Official Site here.

The nominees

La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), Christophe Gans, France and Germany.
Starring Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, André Dussollier, Eduardo Noriega

Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night), Jean-Pierre Dardene and Luc Dardene, Belgium, France and Italy
Starring Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione

Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared), Felix Hemgren
Starring Robert Gustafsson, Mia Skäringer, Alan Ford

Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland and Denmark
Starring Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela

Nymphomaniac, Lars von Trier, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, UK and France
Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Uma Thurman, Shia LaBeou, and many more.

Philomena, Stephen Freas, UK
Starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan

The winner of the EFA People’s Choice Award 2014 will be announced on stage during the European Film Awards Ceremony on 13 December in Riga.