PERSEPOLIS releasing in English

PERSEPOLIS scene, poster, and French actress Catherine Denueve
The French Oscar-nominated feature animated movie PERSEPOLIS, will get a second opening in movie theaters 11 April, and this version is in English. I'm delighted. They may have done it in French for financing, and anticipating that it would be chosen by the French Academy as an entry in the Best Foreign Language category for an Oscar® nomination, which it was.

The plan backfired. It was not selected by AMPAS® in that category, but was nominated in the best animation category. In my humble opinion, if they had released it in the U.S. with the English soundtrack, in the period to qualify for a nomination on its own merits, it would have stood a better chance of winning the Academy Award®. It is totally hand-drawn like the early Disney animated movies.

The movies' writers / directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, directed actors recording the English soundtrack as they were recording the French soundtrack. The movie is based on the autobiographical graphic novel of the same name by Satrapi, which is based on her experiences as a young girl in Iran. It takes place when a large number of fundamentalist Shi'ite Islamic radicals deposed Shah Reza Palavi (1979) and established Sharia law as the supreme law.

Mother and daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni will reprise their roles as the mother Tadji, and daughter Marjane, respectively, in the English version. Sean Penn will provide the voice of Marjane's father Ebi; Gena Rowlands plays Marjane's grandmother; Iggy Pop is Uncle Anouche; and Amethyste Frezignac plays young Marjane.

Disappointing Foreign Film Oscar®

This is the first year since the best foreign-language film category (BFLF) was established for the 29th Academy Awards® in 1956, that this category thoroughly disappoints me. It is disappointing because the foreign movies that have been judged best by film festivals and other legitimate awarding organizations were shut out of the competition by self-appointed committees, and stifling rules.

It is also disappointing because the Academy seems to have forgotten why the category was begun in the first place, loading the qualification rules with insufferable specifications, and providing ways to cut some submitted films off by their knees. When it first began, the films were to be in the native language of the submitting country, and be of exceptional acting and cinematic quality for a an outside-of-Hollywood movie. The goal being to find such films and filmmakers, and help provide their distribution so that they might obtain a wider audience through an Oscar nomination and /or win.

One of the most awarded foreign movies of 2007 is the Romanian movie, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (4 runi, 3 saptamini SI si 2 zile), directed by Cristian Mungiu. It won the Golden Palm as Best Film at Cannes, the Best European Feature in the European Awards, plus many other awards. Naturally, Romania submitted it for the BFLF Oscar®, only to see it fail to meet the first cut by the first selection committee. The L. A. Weekly, and others, called it, ". . . the best foreign film of the year."

So, were the committees appointed to screen the 63 submitted movies and cut the list from which the nominees would be chosen down to only nine, totally unaware of the awards the Romanian movie had won, or was it because the movie is about abortion?

Then, there was the denial of Taiwanese director Ang Lee's LUST, CAUTION. The Academy ruled that not enough of the actors and production staff were actually from Taiwan. Or, was it because some were afraid adults might learn about the Karma Sutra?

Another controversial absence involved the disqualification of Israel's THE BAND'S VISIT, because more than 50 percent of the dialogue between an Egyptian band and Israeli villagers is in English, albeit mostly broken English. Again, it comes down to an archaic insistence on language as the ground rule in the 21st Century where filmmakers are making multi-lingual movies through multi-country co-productions.

Language caused the French Academy to misstep by submitting the animated feature PERSEPOLIS in the BFLF category, which did not even make the short-list but did get a nod in animation. The movie is entirely in French, but is based on a graphic novel by an Iranian, Marjane Satrapi, the co-writer and co-director is the same Iranian, and the subject is a coming-of-age of a young Iranian girl in Iran during the Iranian Islamic revolution. "Persepolis" is a Greek word meaning, The City of Persians for the city, Persian name Parsa, in ancient Iran. The ruins of Parsa are still in Iran. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

By submitting PERSEPOLIS for the BFLF Oscar, the French shut out one of two wonderful French movies, either THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, or La Môme (U.S. title = LA VIE EN ROSE), either of which could have won in the original system, but no one knows what would have happened under the current one.

Actress Marion Cotillard, who portrays the late, great French singer Edith Piaf in the latter, is nominated for best actress. Artist, and DIVING BELL director, Julian Schnabel received a best director nod.

The committee did provide a movie that contains two favored themes for the BFLF voters, World War Two and the Holocaust. THE COUNTERFEITERS is from Austria. Perfect.

From Israel comes BEAUFORT, a story of defeat. In 2001, the last Israeli soldiers must retreat from a famous fort captured by Israel in 1982. While abandoning the fort, the soldiers confront the futility of the mission to capture it in the first place. This in place of the delightful, THE BAND'S VISIT? An abomination.

From Poland comes the best known director in the competition, Andrzej Wajda, whose KATYN tells the true story of 15,000 Poles massacred by Soviet secret police in 1940, one of which was his own father. Wajda holds an honorary Oscar (2000) and many other awards. If this one had no made the list, I would have regurgitated.

Kazakhstan received its first Oscar nomination for MONGOL, in which Russian director Sergei Bodrov chronicles the early life and love of the warrior Genghis Kahn on the Mongolian steppe. Where is Kazakhstan? Does anyone really care? It must be right behind Siberia in my list of never-go-there places.

Another Russian director, Nikita Mikhalkov, whose 1994 picture BURNT BY THE SUN won the best foreign film Oscar for Russia, has made what is described as a "loose remake" of Sidney Lumet's classic court drama 12 ANGRY MEN (1957), which Mikhalkov calls, 12. Will this remake of the Hollywood classic put it in good standing for the Oscar? Is it a "remake" or plagiarism?

Variety film critic Robert Koehler is quoted as saying, "There is a consensus that this is an embarrassing selection and it exposed the category as by far the most problematic one the Academy has."

Bien dit! ¡Bien dicho! Bene disse! Gut sagte! Well said! Is that too much English?

Oh, in case you are wondering, that first BFLF Oscar went to LA STRADA (Italy, 1956), directed by Federico Fellini, produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, starring Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, and Anthony Quinn. Now, if any committee member does not know who these people were, they should never be on another BFLF committee! I would be happy to prepare a test to make sure the prospective committee members are thoroughly qualified in foreign film.

Reference my Foreign Movies Page.

The Year of the Oscar® Rat?

In this Year of the Rat in Chinese astrology, it is may be only fitting that the Academy Awards honor Remy, the young rodent chef wannabe. The Academy members may, or may not, but the Annie Award, which is almost as important to animators as the golden statuette, did.

Pixar Animation Studios' RATATOUILLE dominated the 35th annual Annie Awards Thursday night. The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA, Hollywood) honors the best in animated features.

The Chinese consider the Year of the Rat lucky, and the Chinese lunar year 4705 (06) began 7 February, the day before the Annie Awards. The determined charismatic rodent not only took the top prize for the best animated feature movie, but the top directing and screenwriting awards for Brad Bird as well, a total of nine overall, which included character animation, character design, music, production design, storyboarding and voice acting.

RATATOUILLE is nominated for an Oscar in the best animated feature category along with PERSEPOLIS and SURF'S UP. The latter received Annies for animated effects and animated production artist, but the other ASIFA nominees, PERSEPOLIS and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, came up empty handed.

The Annie Award has become one of those "predictors" for winning an Academy Award® in the best animated feature category. However, last year ASIFA gave CARS the Annie, and the dancing penguins won (HAPPY FEET). Win some. Lose some.

PERSEPOLIS was submitted by France to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film (BFLF) Oscar category instead of submitting THE DIVING BELL and the BUTTERFLY. The irony? PERSEPOLIS missed the Oscar BFLF nod, but is nominated in the best animated feature category.

Well, what about people born in the Year of the Rat? They are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful.

Are you a "rat person?" You are if you was born in 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, or 1996. If so, this could be your lucky year, too. Uh, oh. Time to stir the Sauce Béarnaise. See my Chinese New Year Page.

80th Oscar® Nominations Announced

The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®, Sid Ganis, assisted by the Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates (MISERY, 1990), announced the nominations for the 80th Academy Awards® early this morning, 22 January. They made the announcement at a press conference in the auditorium of the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre at the Academy's headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, at 5:30 a.m., PT, broadcast live on ABC-TV (list below).

There are, essentially, no surprises to those of us who have watched the 2007 film festivals and the 2008 awards season unfold. There are, however, disappointments, but more about that in future posts.

Academy members selected the nominees in their respective branches, with the exception of the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, in which nominations were selected by vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees. Ballots were mailed to the 5,829 voting members in late December and were returned directly to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international accounting firm, for tabulation.

Official screenings of all pictures with one or more nominations will begin this weekend for members at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Screenings also will be held at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York and the Bay Area.

The Academy's entire active membership is now eligible to select the winners in all categories, although in five of them — Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, and Foreign Language Film — members can vote only after attesting they have seen all of the nominated films in those categories.

. . . . AND THE NOMINEES ARE:

Best motion picture of 2007, feature:
ATONEMENT (Focus Features)
JUNO (Fox Searchlight)
MICHAEL CLAYTON (Warner Bros.)
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)

Best live action film of 2007, short:
AT NIGHT (Om natten, Denmark, 37 min) Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
THE SUBSTITUTE (Il Supplente, Italy), Andrea Jublin
THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS (Le Mozart des Pickpockets, France 31 min), Philippe Pollet - Villard
TANGOS ARGENTINIAN (Tanghi argentini, Belgium, 14 min),Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
THE TONTO WOMAN (USA, based on the short story by Elmore Leonard), Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in directing in 2007:
Julian Schnabel, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Jason Reitman, JUNO
Tony Gilroy, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Joel and Ethan Coen, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Paul Thomas Anderson,THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Adapted screenplay 2007, based on material previously produced or published:
Christopher Hampton, ATONEMENT
Sarah Polley, AWAY FROM HER (Lionsgate)
Ronald Harwood, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Joel and Ethan Coen, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Paul Thomas Anderson, THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Original screenplay 2007:
Diablo Cody, JUNO
Nancy Oliver, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (MGM)
Tony Gilroy, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Brad Bird, RATAOUILLE (Walt Disney)
Tamara Jenkins, THE SAVAGES (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a leading role in 2007:
George Clooney, MICHAEL CLAYTON
Daniel Day-Lewis,THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Johnny Depp, SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Distributed by DreamWorks / Paramount))
Tommy Lee Jones, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen, EASTERN PROMISES (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role in 2007:
Casey Affleck, THE ASSASSINAION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORT (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Philip Seymour Hoffman, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (Universal)
Hal Holbrook INTO THE WILD (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson, MICHAEL CLAYTON

Performance by an actress in a leading role in 2007:
Cate Blanchett, ELIZABETH: The Golden Age (Universal)
Julie Christie, AWAY FROM HER
Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney, THE SAVAGES
Ellen Page, JUNO

Performance by an actress in a supporting role in 2007:
Cate Blanchett, I'M NOT THERE (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee, AMERICAN GANGSTER (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan, ATONEMENT
Amy Ryan, GONE BABY GONE (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton, MICHAEL CLAYTON

Best animated film of 2007, feature:
PERSEPOLIS (France, USA), directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (Sony Pictures Classics)
RATATOUILLE, directed by Brad Bird(Walt Disney)
SURF'S UP, directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck (Sony Pictures Releasing)

Best animated film of 2007, short:
I MET THE WALRUS, Josh Raskin
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
EVEN PIGEONS GO TO HEAVEN, (Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis), Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
MY LOVE (Moya Lyubov, Russia), Alexander Petrov
PETER & THE WOLFE, Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best foreign language film of 2007, feature:
BEAUFORT, Israel, directed by Joseph Cedar
THE COUNTERFEITERS (Die Fälscher), Austria, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
KATYN, Poland, directed by Andrzej Wajda
MONGOL, Kazakhstan, directed by Sergei Bodrov
12, Russia, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

Best documentary film of 2007, feature:
NO END IN SIGHT, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs (Magnolia Pictures) (Magnolia Pictures)
OPERATION HOMECOMING: Writing the Wartime Experience, Richard E. Robbins (The Documentary Group)
SICKO, Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara (Lionsgate / The Weinstein Company)
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, Alex Gibney and Eva Orner (THINKFilm)
WAR / DANCE, Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine (THINKFilm)

Best documentary short subject of 2007:
FREEHELD, Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
LA CORONA (The Crown), Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
SALIM BABA, Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
SARI'S MOTHER, James Longley

Achievement in film editing 2007:
Christopher Rouse, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Juliette Welfling, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Jay Cassidy, INTO THE WILD
Roderick Jaynes, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Dylan Tichenor, THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Achievement in cinematography 2007:
Roger Deakins, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Seamus McGarvey, ATONEMENT
Janusz Kaminski, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Roger Deakins, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Robert Elswit, THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Achievement in costume design, 2007:
Albert Wolsky, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Jacqueline Durran, ATONEMENTA
Alexandra Byrne, ELIZABETH: The Golden Age
Marit Allen, LA VIE EN ROSE
Colleen Atwood, SWEENEY TODD

Achievement in makeup, 2007:
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, LA VIE EN ROSE
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji, NORBIT
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: At World’s End

Achievement in art direction, 2007:
AMRICAN GANGSTER, Art Direction: Arthur Max, Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino;
ATONEMENT, Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood, Set Decoration: Katie Spencer;
THE GOLDEN COMPASS, Art Direction: Dennis Gassner, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock;
SWEENEY TODD, Art Direction: Dante Ferretti, Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo;
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Art Direction: Jack Fisk, Set Decoration: Jim Erickson.

Achievement in sound editing, 2007:
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Skip Lievsay
RATATOUILLE, Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Matthew Wood
TRANSFORMERS, Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing, 2007:
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
RATATOUILLE, Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
3:10 TO YUMA, Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
TRANSFORMERS, Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects, 2007:
THE GOLDEN COMPAS, Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: At World’s End, John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
TRANSFORMERS, Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) 2007:
ATONEMENT, Dario Marianelli
THE KITE RUNNER, Alberto Iglesias
MICHAEL CLAYTON, James Newton Howard
RATATOUILLE, Michael Giacchino
3:10 TO YUMA, Marco Beltrami

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) 2007:
ONCE, "Falling Slowly,” Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
ENCHANTED, “Happy Working Song,” Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
AUGUST RUSH, “Raise It Up,” Nominees to be determined
ENCHANTED, “So Close,” Music by Alan Menken and Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
ENCHANTED, “That’s How You Know,” Music by Alan Menken and Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
_______

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, 24 February 2008, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

That's the hope at this point, but all eyes are on the possible settlement of the writer's strike!

LINKS RELEVANT:

There is a permanent link to this list on right sidebar of this blog. Links and other information will be added as made available, or find it here. There is a permanent link to AMPAS on right sidebar, or click title of this post.
Companion site for Oscars 2008
IMDb's ROAD TO THE OSCARS

Filmmakers Question BFLF Oscar® Rules

It seems as though there is more unrest about the rules concerning the Academy Awards® than I thought. In the previous post, "Animators Decry Animation Rules," I reported and commented on some problems concerning this year's Best Animated Feature category, which many contribute to the rules for the category.

Last month I mentioned some issues, and suggested some possible considerations for changes regarding the Best Foreign Language Film (BFLF) category in my post, "Proposed Rule Change for Foreign Movies," Friday, 12 October 2007. This month, some producers and directors have suggested that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'® rules in the BFLF category are causing dismay for those in the industry, especially those working abroad, where mutinational productions are becoming more common each year, and many foreign directors want to work in English as well as their native tongue.

Director Ang Lee in Beverly Hills, 2007

First up is Ang Lee's LUST, CAUTION (Se, jie, 2007) the official entry from Taiwan. Because none of the principal cast and principal department heads (cinematographer, production designer, and sound mixer) were from Taiwan, the Academy ruled the movie was in violation of Rule 14 and disqualified it. Apparently, the Taiwanese government was given only a few hours notice to substitute another movie.

Devastated by the loss of their award-winning director (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, Wo hu cang long, Tiawan, 2000; and EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, Yin shi nan nu, Tiawan, 1994), the officials in Taiwan substituted ISLAND ETUDE (Lian xi qu, 2006) directed by Huai-en Chen, or Chen Huai-En. Chen has mainly worked as a cinematographer. ISLAND ETUDE is his first directorial effort.

Lee, born in Taiwan and educated in the U.S., won a Best Picture Oscar®, and numerous other awards for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (USA, 2005), plus many awards for SENSE AND SENIBILITY, 1995, and THE ICE STORM, 1997, English being the principal language spoken in all.

Another strong picture,THE BAND'S VISIT (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret, Eran Kolirin, director, 2007) officially submitted by Israel, was turned down because there is too much English in the picture. Again see my post of 12 October about the problem of "language" in foreign movies.

Israel substituted BEAUFORT, Joseph Cedar, 2007, the latter's story line being much less interesting than a brass band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center only to find themselves lost in a foreign city.

THE DIVING BELL and the BUTTERFLY (Le Scaphandre et le papillon, France / USA , 2007), Julian Schnabel's French movie, which won him the directing prize at Cannes and critical acclaim at other festivals, was not submitted by France. They chose to submit the animated PERSEPOLIS, also in French with French crew and actors, Catherine Deneuve among them. Under the Academy's rules a country may submit only one entry, and the country has the right to make that choice. That is, provided the movie follows the rules of submission established by the Academy.

PERSEPOLIS is based on Iranian author Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel. Satrapi also co-wrote the screenplay and co-directed the movie with Frenchman Vincent Paronnaud. It is a poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution. Deneuve plays the mother, and that alone certifies it as genuinely French. Plus, doesn't every Iranian girl have a French mother as beautiful and Deneuve?

Julian Schnabel, director of DIVING BELL, was an art-world star in the early 1980s. A native of Brooklyn, he still draws and paints, but his other medium now is film. He made his first movie, BASQUIAT (Build a Fort, Set it on Fire, USA) in 1996, about the art world with which he is very familiar.

His second movie, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS in 2000, about the homosexual Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, established him as a director, and gained an Oscar nomination for the star, Javier Bardem. All of Schnabel's five children appear in the movie. His current wife is Spanish actress Olatz Lopez Garmendia. She has appeared in all of his movies, and executive produced BEFORE NIGHT FALLS.

DIVING BELL is based on the best-selling memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the former editor in chief of Elle magazine in France. In 1995, Mr. Bauby suffered a stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome, conscious but paralyzed, with only his left eye remaining functional. He painstakingly composed the memoir by blinking that eye to select letters on a chart.

The movie sounds very much like the award-winning MAR ADENTO (The Sea Inside, Spain, 2004), directed by Alejandro Amenába (right in picture above). It is based on the true story of a Spanish sailor, Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign for his right to die with dignity after a diving accident left him paralyzed. MAR ADENTO garnered a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film and a Globe nomination for its star Javier Bardem (left in picture above) as best actor. It swept Spain's Goya Awards, and won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in the U.S. For all awards click HERE. I'm sure this year's members of the Academy BFLF committees would recognize the similarities in the MAR ADENTO and DIVING BELL.

In an article for Reuters, "Filmmakers question Oscar's foreign movie rules," 9 October 2007, Stephen Galloway writes that the Afghan tale THE KITE RUNNER, " . . . would never had stood a chance [in the BFLF category because it] features English and Dari dialogue, [and] was made by a Swiss -American Director, Marc Forster with an international crew."

He notes Afghanistan has no submission this year, implying the reason is THE KITE RUNNER did not meet the rules for a BFLF submission, but THE KITE RUNNER is based on a book written by American-educated Afghani writer Khaled Hosseini, who also cowrote the screenplay. Although the main actors and some of the crew are from Afghanistan, it was filmed in China and California, by U.S. production companies (principally MacDonald / Parkes Productions) and is distributed by U.S. distributors (DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Vintage). There is more English spoken than the other foreign languages, and it is officially a U.S. production, not Afghani, and was not eligible for a BFLF submission from Afghanistan from the beginning.

Mr. Galloway also wrote, "In excluding movies like these, the Academy continues to court controversy with foreign-language rules that many deem in need of revision." Amen!

One reason revisions are needed could be that the designation "foreign-language film" is outmoded in our new world-wide economy in which the European Union has dissolved borders within the Union, and the English language is the official diplomatic language, transcending borders around the world. Again, I urge the members of the Board of Governors of the Academy to take a serious look at their rules, especially in the BFLF category, but I would prefer calling the category "Best Foreign Motion Picture".

Animated Features Submitted for Oscars®

Only 12 animated features were submitted for possible nomination for the upcoming Oscars. I had hopes that we might get five animated features nominated for the 80th Academy Awards® in February, but the rules state, "A maximum of three films can be nominated in a year in which the field of eligible entries numbers at least 8 but fewer than 16." Oh, well. Maybe next year.

Feature motion pictures submitted in the Animated Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.

The 12 submitted features are:

ALVIN and the CHIPMUNKS **
AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON MOVIE FILM FOR THEATERS #
BEE MOVIE
BEOWULF **
MEET THE ROBINSONS #
PERSEPOLIS **
RATATOUILLER #
SHREK the THIRD +
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE + +
SURF'S UP#
TEKKON KINKREET (a Japanese fable from U.S.-born director Michael Arias) #
TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) #

** Have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. The submitted features must fulfill the general release requirements and meet all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.
# Available on DVD.
+ DVD releasing 13 November.
+ + DVD releasing December.

The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 22 January 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding motion picture achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, 24 February 2008, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT.