The Academy has announced the shortlists for some of its specialized categories, and the one with the biggest omissions has got to be its foreign-language film list. Here are the nine films to advance in the foreign film race for this year:
- Tanna (Australia)
- It's Only the End of the World (Canada)
- Land of Mine (Denmark)
- Toni Erdmann (Germany)
- The Salesman (Iran)
- The King's Choice (Norway)
- Paradise (Russia)
- A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
- My Life as a Zucchini (Switzerland)
Okay, so the big snub here is Paul Verhoeven's Elle, from France. It was universally acclaimed and Isabelle Huppert is still considered to have a good chance for the Oscar nomination, but I was never totally sure that would make it in here. The Academy's foreign-language film committee is still pretty stuffy, and ever since I saw it I doubted that a black comedy with such violent rape scenes (and that a lot of people frankly consider to be pulp) would make the cut. So I was less shocked about that omission than others. It's also apparent that South Korea really should have submitted The Handmaiden instead of The Age of Shadows, which didn't even make it to the shortlist, while the former won great acclaim at Cannes, is now being hailed by critics everywhere and probably could have. Finally, the animated My Life as a Zucchini (above) is a surprise to see here, as I figured that one was going to be a sure bet from the animated branch, but I'd be shocked to see it nominated in Foreign-Language as well. The frontrunner for this category remains Germany's Toni Erdmann though, which has won many critics prizes and just swept the European Film Awards as well.
VISUAL EFFECTS
- Arrival
- The BFG
- Captain America: Civil War
- Deepwater Horizon
- Doctor Strange
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- The Jungle Book
- Kubo and the Two Strings
- Passengers
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Meanwhile, the Oscar race for visual effects has advanced ten films to the finals, and I have a strong feeling that The Jungle Book is probably the frontrunner in this category, given that the whole film is basically a visual effect, aside from Mowgli himself. My prediction for the final five is Arrival, Doctor Strange, Jungle Book, Fantastic Beasts and....Rogue One? Well, it's between that and The BFG to be honest. The latter was a massive flop, but the effects played such a huge role, and on the other hand, how many times have we seen the same Star Wars effects?
