[LA Times] Bewildering foreign policy When Oscar nominees in the foreign language film category are announced, one of the most talked-about movies of the year will not be among them. By Lorenza Muñoz Times Staff Writer
February 7 2003
Next week, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces Oscar nominees in the foreign language film category, one of the most talked-about movies of the year will not be among them -- Pedro Almodóvar's "Talk to Her."
Bypassing the provocative new film, Spain chose to submit a movie about unemployed dock workers that has hit a populist and political chord at home.
Italy also has put forward an eyebrow-raising choice: Roberto Benigni's "Pinocchio," a box office smash at home but roundly panned by critics and audiences abroad. France's pick? "8 Women," a wacky musical by François Ozon that did well in France but was seen in the U.S. as an uneven piece of filmmaking at best. And Russia's 15-member Oscar submission selection committee went with "House of Fools" by Andrei Konchalovsky over Alexander Rogozhkin's "The Cuckoo," a film that took the main prizes at Russia's first Golden Eagle film awards, voted on by Russia's 2,500 film academy members.
The foreign language nomination committee for the Oscars isn't the U.N. Security Council, but each year at this time it must wade through global politicking, diplomatic challenges and sometimes hard-to-fathom national preferences as it selects five nominees from the offerings presented by countries around the world.
Jerry Pam, publicist for Michael Caine and a 20-year member of the Foreign Language Film Selection Committee, said many of this year's 54 entries have been bizarre or even difficult to watch.
" 'Pinocchio'? That was a walkout," he said of the screening, which was mandatory for members of his committee. "There was a mass exodus out of the theater. I have never seen anything like it in my life."
But the 600-member foreign language selection committee doesn't just deal with unpredictable or politically freighted choices from the submitting countries. It also stirs up plenty of controversy on its own.
This year, for example, the academy rejected two films: the United Kingdom's Hindi-language movie "The Warrior," because it was deemed too Indian to be a British submission, and Hong Kong's English- and Mandarin-language "The Touch" because it was mostly in English.
Even what constitutes a "country" is open to interpretation. The producers of a Palestinian film, "Divine Intervention," cried foul when they were informed by the academy that Palestine is not considered a country and is therefore ineligible. But the academy accepts entries from other areas, including Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
The stakes are uniquely high. For most of these films, a nomination means the difference between international success and oblivion. For example, Martha Sosa, producer of Mexico's highly touted film "Amores Perros," said its nomination two years ago was invaluable in selling the film abroad.
"It helped a lot in the marketing of the film with distributors abroad in Japan and England and other territories which had not opened the film," Sosa said. "And of course it's been great to have that for the DVD and television sales."
This year's controversies are nothing new. In 1985 Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" was overlooked by the Japanese even though Kurosawa was nominated in the best director category that year; Michael Radford's "Il Postino," was not submitted by Italy the year it was eligible for foreign language film, 1994, but it was nominated for best picture of 1995; last year India did not submit Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding," and Alfonso Cuarón's "Y Tu Mamá También" was snubbed by Mexico.
"This idea of 'one film, one country' becomes problematic in those countries that have very active film industries," said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, the U.S. distributor of "Talk to Her." "The result is not only that the countries make a political decision but also that they pick a movie to the specific tastes of that culture, which may be very different from the tastes of the American culture. So you wonder, is this really the best a country has to offer this year?"
Although Mark Johnson, chairman of the academy's foreign language selection committee, admits there are problems with the current system, he does not see an easy solution.
"We have never known how to modify our rules in a way that is fair," said Johnson.
Academy guidelines require each country to create a selection committee made up mainly of filmmakers. But the rules must remain flexible enough to accommodate vastly different circumstances.
For example, the academy ordinarily frowns on selection committees made up of government bureaucrats, but it makes exceptions for China and Iran, whose committees include government-appointed information and culture ministers. Every year the academy receives a list of committee members from each country.
The academy also requires that a submitted movie play in a theater in its home country for seven days before an October deadline, regardless of the circumstances. In some war-torn areas, such as Afghanistan or Palestine, finding a working movie theater is nigh impossible.
Depending on the country, the committees vary widely in size, from 978 voting members in Spain to Afghanistan's eight-person panel to Mexico's nearly 80 voters. In some countries, including Israel and Iceland, the winner of their equivalent of the Oscars is submitted.
Sometimes a country's tastes are at odds with a film's reception abroad.
Spain's official entry, "Mondays in the Sun," recently swept the country's Goya awards, virtually shutting out "Talk to Her," which won only a music award. Almodóvar's film was controversial at home, in particular because one of the sympathetic male characters commits a serious crime. Almodóvar, who won a best foreign language Oscar two years ago for "All About My Mother," has opted not to say anything publicly about the Spanish academy's decision. "Talk to Her" has won most of its accolades abroad.
Industry politics can also be a factor, as might have been the case with "Y Tu Mamá También."
Mexico offered a little-known film without a U.S. distributor, "Perfume de Violetas", as its official entry last year. Carlos Cuarón, who co-wrote "Y Tu Mamá" with his brother, said their own country's academy gave them the cold shoulder -- perhaps because of the thorny relationship the Cuarón brothers have had with many in the Mexican film industry. Alfonso Cuarón departed his native land for Hollywood in the mid-1990s after several high-profile arguments with members of Mexico's government funding agency.
"We had the exact opposite experience in Mexico that we have had everywhere else in the world," Cuarón said, noting "Y Tu Mamá's" accolades and box office success abroad. "If we were ever nominated for something in Mexico, we would always lose."
But Diana Bracho, president of the Mexican Academy, said there was no "Machiavellian" plan to leave "Y Tu Mamá" out.
"Picking one film depends a great deal on people's personal opinions," said Bracho, who co-incidentally starred in "Y Tu Mamá." "I don't think there was any animosity toward Cuarón. It was just that a big group decided to send another film."
("Y Tu Mamá" qualifies for other every other Oscar category this year except best foreign language film because its U.S. release in 2002 came the year after its run at home. The same is true for "Talk to Her" because it opened in the U.S. late in the same year it came out in Spain.)
Some observers say the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should open up the process and allow film producers or distributors, rather than a country, to enter any movie -- similar to the process for the Golden Globes.
But unlike the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which organizes the Golden Globes, academy foreign language film committee members are required to watch every movie on the big screen before they vote on the nominations. This year, the Globes had more than 80 submissions compared to the academy's 54. Watching more movies would be logistically impossible, said Johnson, who is also a working producer.
"I'm already seeing 14 pictures a week. It's tremendous," added committee member Pam.
In recent years, the academy has faced another problem -- determining which country can claim a movie.
When the foreign language film award executive committee's 15 members voted not to allow "The Warrior," it sparked controversy in the movie's native Britain. Academy President Bruce Davis maintains the movie had nothing to do with Great Britain: "It is about legendary exploits in India."
But Duncan Kenworthy, chairman of the film selection committee for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, had a different view.
"We submitted what we thought was the best British foreign language film," said Kenworthy. "In our opinion it is a British movie."
Committee members didn't see the films they rejected; they relied on written explanations of the films' plot lines to decide.
The academy, however, did accept an Afghan film, "Fire Dancer," which was originally filmed in English, set in New York City, made by and starring Afghan Americans. The movie was dubbed into Dari, an Afghan language, after it was filmed so it could be seen in Afghanistan. Johnson concedes the academy "may have made a mistake."The academy also admitted the Swedish entry "Lilja 4-ever," which is primarily set in Russia and spoken in Russian. Eventually, the main character flees to Sweden. Davis said that film qualified because of academy rules that allow a country to enter a film if the story "mandates" that another non-English language be spoken.
Critics contend the academy's decisions are inconsistent.
In 1995, it denied Switzerland's official entry, "Red," which was in French, set in Switzerland, directed by Polish-born Krzysztof Kieslowski and starred French actress Irene Jacob. Miramax executive Cynthia Swartz, whose company handled the film in the U.S., said the academy should reexamine some of its policies. "One of the best foreign language films of the year was not eligible because it was not sufficiently French or Swiss or Polish," she said. "If you have the system where every country submits a film, then it would be nice if there were more latitude in allowing that country to determine if the film is sufficiently from there."