This awards season features one of the strongest rosters of international Oscar contenders in recent memory. With “Close” (Belgium), “Holy Spider” (Denmark) and “Saint Omer” (France) in mind, there is also an avalanche of succulent stories in “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany) and “Argentina , 1985” (Argentina). Even the larger-than-life actor “RRR”, distributed by Variance Films, remains one of the most talked about films of the year, despite being overlooked as a submission of India at the Oscars for “Last Film Show”.
And yet, even with such a diversity of films on offer, international contenders still struggle to find a profile outside of the best international feature category. It’s only recently, since Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’ Best Picture win of 2020, that non-US titles have received the investment – and confidence – needed to campaign in other categories. .
It’s not that Academy voters aren’t invested in movies outside of their own culture: Once engaged, the themes and movie magic tend to speak for themselves. The struggle, it seems, is in getting voters to press play and a lack of transparency about who, exactly, votes first.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approximately 10,000 entertainment professionals worldwide (approximately 7,500 based in the United States). When submitting an international feature film, each country can choose a film in any language other than English. But what people might not realize is that every Academy voter has to choose to watch international features.
The Academy then assigns a required viewing list for each member, which represents approximately 20% of the total films submitted (this year’s total submissions have not yet been announced, but are believed to have topped 90 films ). These required viewing titles must, at a minimum, be watched in order to vote for the first ballot, which narrows the field to 15 features. After the shortlist was announced in December, the same members must watch all 15 selections to vote during the nomination voting period that ultimately determines the five Oscar-nominated films.
But there’s a glaring problem right off the bat: Movie studios and awards publicists don’t know who opted into the voting process, or how many voters did. As far as they know, it could be 10 people or all 10,000. This anonymity forces studios to push these films to the widest audience possible, rather than tailoring campaigns to a specific group, which would be a lot more effective and would help certain films get on a stronger footing during awards season.
close
Courtesy of Diaphana Films
Elsewhere, there are also trade barriers affecting how far an international film can reasonably go.
In 2016, AMPAS introduced the Academy Screening Room (ASR), a digital platform for voting members to screen films for their award. It was launched initially for specialist categories, then expanded in 2019 for general admission. It’s a big improvement over the “old days” of limited screenings, says Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics. At the time, “movies were shown once at the Los Angeles Academy, so if you wanted to vote for the shortlist — or, before they got the shortlist, for the five [films] – you literally had to go to the only screening. This reduced the number of people who could vote.
Submission to the ASR of an international feature film is free, but for films seeking nominations outside of the category, including best picture, a $20,000 fee applies. Per Academy guidelines, this covers the cost of an invisible watermark and its technical team’s extensive quality control review.
As you can imagine, for smaller films from less wealthy countries, $20,000 is very expensive. The submission fee alone could be half of an entire campaign season’s modest budget. However, there is an application that studios and filmmakers can apply for if their films were made with a budget of less than US$10 million. If approved, they receive a reduced rate of $8,000.
“It would be amazing if every movie, in every language, got recognition, but that’s not the reality,” said a prominent studio executive. “It’s easy to say that voters don’t watch movies, and it’s true. But also true [is that] even though it was nominated for Best Picture, “Drive My Car” did not sell out AMC theaters. »
For voters like this studio executive, award recognition isn’t enough: there has to be a box office win, which isn’t always guaranteed with international titles. “Drive My Car,” a three-hour Japanese film from Janus Films, earned just $2.3 million domestically and only over $15 million worldwide.
Lily: the latest predictions, visit Variety Oscar Center.
Meanwhile, international feature film wins don’t even receive the same recognition as other categories at the Oscars. While studios covet the highly sought-after Best Picture statuette, the less than stellar International Film Oscar award is the only category without an official person officially receiving the award.
Even if the director of the film generally accepts it, the nomination and the eventual statuette go to the respective country. For example, Asghar Farhadi’s films “A Separation” (2011) and “The Salesman” (2016) both won for his native Iran, but he’s technically not an Oscar winner. Likewise, Pedro Almodóvar’s Academy win is for the original screenplay of “Talk to Her” (2002) and not in the history books for his Oscar-winning international feature for “All About My Mother” ( 1999).
Ultimately, there’s still work to be done for inclusivity in Hollywood, but consumers must also participate. If you haven’t heard of it and don’t know anything about it, now is the best time to watch a movie. You might surprise yourself.