Foreign Film Contenders. From 61 to 9

From OscarWatch

Nine Foreign Language
Films Seeking 2006 Oscar®

Beverly Hills, CA — Nine films will advance in the voting process in the Foreign Language Film category for the 79th Academy Awards®. Sixty-one films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Algeria, “Days of Glory,” Rachid Bouchareb, director
Canada, “Water,” Deepa Mehta, director
Denmark, “After the Wedding,” Susanne Bier, director
France, “Avenue Montaigne,” Daniele Thompson, director
Germany, “The Lives of Others,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director
Mexico, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo del Toro, director
The Netherlands, “Black Book,” Paul Verhoeven, director
Spain, “Volver,” Pedro Almodovar, director
Switzerland, “Vitus,” Fredi M. Murer, director

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2006 are being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 61 eligible films and their ballots determined the shortlist.

A Phase II committee, made up of ten randomly selected members from the Phase I group, joined by additional ten-member contingents in New York and Los Angeles, will view the shortlisted films and select the five 2006 nominees for the category.

Phase II screenings will take place from Friday, January 19, through Sunday, January 21, in both Hollywood and New York City.

Nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST), beginning with a half-hour arrivals segment, “The Road to the Oscars®.”

Sad that Rolf de Heer's AFI winning Ten Canoes didn't make the bakeoff. I suppose they just really like Europe. A lot. Why aren't there any pictures of this Avenue Montaigne on the net, btw? I tried to find a poster but couldn't. Oh well.

The nominees that, as of now, appear locked here would be Almodovar's Volver, Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (all three have appeared throughout the awards season, including being the only non-American nominees at the Globes). The last two spots seem to be between three films - Deepa Mehta's Water, Paul Verhoeven's Black Book (will they finally acknowledge Verhoeven?!?) and Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory. I think it will be the former two, but this category always surprises, so who knows?

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edit - Ugh, I'm such a knob. I completely forgot to mention one of the main things. No Curse of the Golden Flower! Zhang Yimou's third (and final?) wuxia epic was the nominated film of China. It stars Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat and it considered a major contender for Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Although, Yimou's last wuxia film, House of Flying Daggers, missed out on the seemingly easy get of Foreign Language Film, Costume Design and Art Direction to stuff like Troy, so who knows, really. It entered Oscar night with only a Best Cinematography nomination. Golden Flower's absense from here doesn't bode well, I must say. Although this one is apparently even more visually extreme, so maybe it will still make it. I can't really comment because it hasn't been released here yet, naturally.