61 COUNTRIES VIE FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR®

The submission list is out for the 61 countries who have submitted films for consideration as the Best Foreign Language Film of 2006 for the 79th Academy Awards® in January. The list below does not include a 62nd country, Finland, which submitted Aki Kaurismakiâ's LIGHTS IN THE DUSK, but the filmmaker subsequently withdrew it. A link "Foreign Films Submitted 2007" is on the right sidebar of this blog and will remain for about five months.

The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, January 23, 2007, and the awards will be presented at the Oscar gala Sunday, February 25, 2007.

The Foreign Language Film submissions for Best Foreign Language Film of 2006, and their directors are:

Algeria, DAYS OF GLORY, Rachid Bouchareb.

Argentina, FAMILY LAW, Daniel Burman.

Australia, TEN CANOES, Rolf de Heer.

Austria, YOU BET YOUR LIFE, Antonin Svoboda.

Bangladesh, FOREVER FLOWS, Abu Sayeed.

Belgium, SOMEONE ELSE'S HAPPINESS, Fien Troch.

Bolivia, AMERICAN VISA, Juan Carlos Valdivia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, GRBAVICA, Jasmila Zbanic.

Brazil, CINEMA, ASPIRINS and VULTURES, Marcelo Gomes.

Bulgaria, MONKEYS IN WINTER, Milena Andonova.

Canada, WATER, Deepa Mehta.

Chile, EN LA CAMA, Matiaz Bize.

China, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, Zhang Yimou.

Colombia, A TON OF LUCK, Rodrigo Triana.

Croatia, LIBERTAS, Veljko Bulajic.

Cuba, EL BENNY, Jorge Luis Sanchez.

Czech Republic, LUNACY, Jan Svankmajer.

Denmark, AFTER THE WEDDING, Susanne Bier.

Egypt, THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING, Marwan Hamed.

France, AVENUE MONTAIGNE, Daniele Thompson.

Germany, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Greece, CHARITON'S CHOIR, Grigoris Karantinakis.

Hong Kong, THE BANQUET, Feng Xiaogang.

Hungary, WHITE PALMS, Szabolcs Hajdu.

Iceland, CHILDREN, Ragnar Bragason.

India, RANG DE BASANTI, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.

Indonesia, LOVE FOR SHARE, Nia Dinata.

Iran, TRANSIT CAFE, Kambozia Partovi.

Iraq, DREAMS Mohamed Al-Daradji.

Israel, SWEET MUD, Dror Shaul.

Italy, GOLDEN DOOR, Emanuele Crialese.

Japan, HULA GIRLS, Sang-il Lee.

Kazakhstan, NOMAD, Sergei Bodrov, Talgat Temenov, Ivan Passer.

Korea, KING AND THE CLOWN, Lee Jun-ik.

Kyrgyzstan, THE WEDDING CHEST, Nurbek Egen.

Lebanon, BOSTA, Philippe Aractingi.

Lithuania, BEFORE FLYING BACK TO EARTH, Arunas Matelis.

Macedonia, KONTAKT, Sergei Stanojkovski.

Mexico, PAN'S LABYRINTH, Guillermo del Toro.

Morocco, THE MOROCCAN SYMPHONY, Kamal Kamal.

Nepal, BASAIN, Subash Prasad Gajurel.

The Netherlands, BLACK BOOK, Paul Verhoeven.

Norway, REPRISE, Joachim Trier.

Peru, MADEINUSA, Claudia Llosa.

Philippines, THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS, Auraeus Solito.

Poland, RETRIEVAL, Slawomir Fabicki.

Portugal, ALICE, Marco Martins.

Puerto Rico, THIEVES AND LIARS, Ricardo Mendez Matta.

Romania, THE WAY I SPEND THE END OF THE WORLD, Catalin Mitulescu.

Russia, 9TH COMPANY, Fyodor Bondarchuk.

Serbia, TOMORROW MORNING, Oleg Novkovic.

Slovenia, GRAVEHOPPING, Jan Cvitkovic.

Spain, VOLVER, Pedro Almodovar.

Sweden, FALKENBERG FAREWELL, Jesper Ganslandt.

Switzerland, VITUS, Fredi M. Murer.

Taiwan, BLUE CHA CHA, Cheng Wen-tang.

Thailand, AHIMSA STOP TO RUN, Leo Kittikorn.

Turkey, ICE CREAM, I SCREAM, Yuksel Aksu.

Ukraine, AURORA, Oxana Bayrak.

Venezuela, MAROA, Solveig Hoogesteijn.

Vietnam, STORY OF PAO, Ngo Quang Hai.

Mexico, Russia, and Hungary submit for Oscars

Pan's Labyrinth

Well, I didn't find this in the press, or any e-mail I've received, but Guillermo del Toro's dark fantasy PAN'S LABYRINTH has been submitted as Mexico's BFLF submission for the 79th Annual Academy Awards®. The Hollywood Reporter reported it 28 September. Written, directed and produced by del Toro, PAN'S LABYRINTH will hit U.S. theaters December 29th, released by Picturehouse.

I did not see LABYRINTH listed for San Sebastián, but Toronto listed it as a film from Spain. Hence, my confusion. It is a co-production, and Mexico has submitted it while Spain submitted VOLVER. So, I guess Mexico claims it.

Should Labyrinth be nominated, it will join recent nominees from Mexico, Carlos Carrera's EL CRIMEN DEL PADRES AMARO (The Crime of Father Amaro, 2003), and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's AMORES PERROS (Love's a Bitch, 2001).

Russia named 9TH COMPANY (9-ya rota), and Hungary selected WHITE PALMS, directed by Szabolcs Hajdu, as their respective candidates for BFLF. COMPANY, the first feature from director Fedor (sometimes as Fyodor) Bondarchuk, is based on the story of a group of Soviet soldiers abandoned to their fate by negligent officers at the end of the Russian-Afghan war of the 1980s.

A bettle between Mexico and Spain for an Oscar® nod? Now, that would be interesting.

SEVEN COUNTRIES SUBMIT OSCAR ENTRIES

Ten Canoes

This week, seven counties announced the films they are submitting for the 79th Academy Awards this coming February in the Best Foreign Language Oscar category. They are: Australia, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. Spain announced last week. See previous post, 30 September.

Australia picks Aboriginal film

TEN CANOES, shot in the Australian indigenous Aboriginal language of Ganalbingu, is Australia's choice. CANOES is not only the first Aboriginal film, it is a film that could not have been submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Best Foreign Language (BFLF) category before now.

The Academy completely overhauled the rules for the BFLF category earlier this year. One of the changes stipulates that films no longer must be in the official language of the submitting country. As I reported in my post on this blog, 22 July 2006, "AMPAS update: . . .": "So long as the dominant language is not English, a picture from any country may be in any language or combination of languages. Last year, the Italians wanted to submit a picture that was clearly made by Italian artists, and which qualified for the category in every other way except one: there was no Italian language in it. All the dialogue was in Middle Eastern languages."

There were big changes in the selection process, too. See that 22 July post for more info.

Rolf De Heer, wrote the script in collaboration with the people of Ramingining, a community of Yolngu people in Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. He co-directed with Peter Djigirr.

China picks film directed by Zhang Yimou

China has chosen Zhang Yimou's CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, center around ancient Chinese imperial politics, was selected by a committee set up by China's Film Bureau. It stars Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li and Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou.

Zhang directed the critically acclaimed HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS and HERO. Both starred the beautiful Ziyi Zhang, who stars in the Hong Kong entry this year.

Denmark decides for AFTER THE WEDDING

AFTER THE WEDDING (Efter brylluppet), directed by Susanne Bier, tells the story of a manager of an orphanage in Denmark (Mads Mikkelsen) who is sent to Copenhagen, where he discovers a life-altering family secret.

Hong Kong goes with director Feng

The Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong have picked Chinese director Xiaogang Feng's THE BANQUET (Ye yan), inspired by "Hamlet" and starring Ziyi Zhang and Caniel Wu. It is a Hong Kong-China co-production.

Italy enters GOLDEN DOOR

GOLDEN DOOR (Nuovomondo), depicting the voyage of a Sicilian family from their homeland to America at the beginning of the last century was selected by the Anica association of film producers to represent Italy. Directed by Emanuele Crialese, DOOR stars Charlotte Gainesbourg, and is largely scripted in the Sicilian dialect.

GOLDEN DOOR was shown in competition at last month's Venice Film festival, where it won praise from Italian critics. There, the movie won the Silver Lion for revelation, an award that the jury does not have to hand out, but it was given as a sign of appreciation for the movie.

Italy's choice for last year's Academy Awards, DON’T TELL, won a nomination for BFLF. Italy last won the BFLF Oscar in 1999 with Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful."

Norway sends REPRISE

The lighthearted film REPRISE, about life's realities intruding on youthful assumptions, is Norway's entry. It is director Joachim Trier's debut feature film.

Sweden waves FALKENBERG FAREWELL

Jesper Ganslandt's FALKENBERG FAREWELL (Farväl Falkenberg) will represent Sweden. No other info available at the moment.

This post mainly based on information from Yahoo Movies, and the Academy Web site. See links on the right sidebar.