Let’s Go Abroad: Examining The Likely Nominees For Best International Feature At The Oscars - Awards Outlook
Awards analysis is provided by Sean from @MathTeacherMovies.
Let’s Go Abroad: Examining The Likely Nominees For Best International Feature At The Oscars
International Feature has been a category of rising popularity over the past few years and this year looks like no exception. It’s likely that several prospective nominees will also be nominated for Best Picture or able to at least get several nominations in other categories.
The film that is likely to be the biggest hit at the Oscars in this category is The Zone of Interest which has the chance of nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. While it is coming from the United Kingdom, a rare path for an international film, this film is on the line when it comes to the usage of foreign language, but it technically qualifies so it will definitely be considered.
All Quiet on the Western Front was a movie that shocked the world into the win last year coming from Netflix, rising in popularity out of nowhere, and that seems to be the case for Spain’s submission of Society of the Snow (also coming from Netflix), It has been currying a great deal of goodwill at the festivals and also has quite a bit of buzz for several technical awards, similar to All Quiet on the Western Front. In Society of the Snow, J.A. Bayona returns to a survival film much like The Impossible which was also received favorably at the Oscars in its year.
Iconic director Wim Wenders is back to the big screen and has yet to win an Oscar. Even if the International Film Oscars does not go to the director, the film Perfect Days would be a way of honoring him. Japan selected this film over Miyazaki’s new film, The Boy and the Heron, which was shocking enough. This could ultimately work against Perfect Days or could be the statement of this film being that good.
France pulled a similar surprising submission, picking The Taste of Things over Anatomy of a Fall in a tremendous move, but The Taste of Things is getting favorable attention from most of the festivals. France has had some issues with the Oscars as time has passed, not receiving a nomination since 2019. The Taste of Things is also getting some long shot buzz from both cinematography and a possible Supporting Actress nom for Juliette Binoche which are rare possibilities but could still put it on the map.
20 Days in Mariupol will be the type of film that will probably be the International Film that also gets a Best Documentary nomination, much like Honeyland and The Collective as the subject is way too important to be ignored.
Two films that are on the outside looking in are The Teachers’ Lounge and Concrete Utopia in what has proven to be a reliantly unpredictable category (see Yak in the Classroom). In general, even though these nominees above are the likeliest there is always the potential for something else crazy to happen.