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| Possible Canuck Oscar contenders are A Bag of Marbles, Hochelaga, Maligutit, Old Stone and Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves |
The submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film race are
trickling in! Canada announces its contender on Monday, September 25 and
whatever film we send joins a growing field that already includes some
formidable frontrunners. Cannes winners The
Square (Sweden), Loveless (Russia)
and 120 Beats Per Minute (France) are
leading the pack, but don’t count out Berlin winner On Body and Soul (Hungary) and fall festival breakouts like Razzia (Morocco), A Fantastic Woman (Chile), and Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father (Cambodia). Other submissions include Happy End
(Austria), Racer and the Jailbird (Belgium), and The Fixer (Romania). With these and other submissions in place, what are the films that
Canada might consider?
There seem to be fewer Canadian releases than in recent years with the exceptions of commercially successful sequels like Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 and De père en flic 2 and the co-pro Maudie. But with a few festival holdovers from last year in the running and some potential late-breakers, here’s a quick look at Canuck contenders. All submissions must open by September 30 with October 2 as the deadline to submit.
Un sac de billes (A Bag of Marbles)
Dir: Christian Duguay (The
Art of War)
Festivals: a handful of minor international fests
Awards: none
Synopsis: The true story of two young Jewish brothers in
German occupied France who, with a mind-boggling mix of mischievousness,
courage and ingenuity, will be forced to fend for themselves in order to
survive the enemy invasion and try bring their family back together.
Pros: Ricky Gervais was right on the money when he told Kate
Winslet that she needed to do a Holocaust movie if she wanted to win an Oscar.
Stories about World War II and its aftermath traditionally play well with the
Academy, particularly in the foreign category with recent winners Son of Saul, Ida, and The Counterfeiters taking
home hardware. This well-reviewed co-production between Canada, France, and the
Czech Republic features international stars like Elsa Zylberstein and Christian
Clavier.
Cons: Did Marbles even
open in Toronto? Despite fair notices, the film has no profile and little to
gain now that it’s moving out of theatres and onto DVD. Director Christian
Duguay’s body of work is mostly commercial stuff shot in Canada on the cheap
and he doesn’t have the auteur pedigree commonly associate with the foreign
race.
Dir. Mathieu Denis (Corbo)
and Simon Lavoie (The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches)
Select Festivals:
TIFF, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Berlin, Sydney, Karlovy Kary
Awards: Best Canadian Feature (TIFF), Canada’s Top Ten, 3
Canadian Screen Award nominations including Best Film, Prix Iris winner
(production design), 4 Prix Iris nominations incl Best Film, Grand Prize for
Avant Garde and Genre Cinema (Buenos Aires)
Synopsis: A group of young people in Québec resolve to form
a revolutionary cell together in the aftermath of student protests.
Pros: This radical piece of rebellious and politically
charged filmmaking is a true work of art. Graves
weaves a dexterously plotted tale of the Quebec student protests (colloquially
known as Maple Spring) and blends drama and archival footage with onscreen
excerpts of political manifestos and shape-shifting aspect ratios that convey
different ways of seeing the world. People who love this film really love it,
and the sheer scope, passion, and originality of the work makes it an easy
choice for anyone eager to recognize a risky work of art.
Cons: Films like Graves
are love-it-or-hate-it. At three hours, it’s a very demanding film that isn’t
for all tastes. The style might be seen as self-indulgent by some.
Dir. Johnny Ma (debut)
Select Festivals: Berlin, TIFF, AFI, Hong Kong, Stockholm
Select Awards: Best Canadian First Feature (TIFF), Canada’s
Top Ten, 5 Canadian Screen Award nominations including Best Film, Best Director
and Best Screenplay (Stockholm FF), FIPRESCI Prize (Pacific Meridian FF)
Synopsis: A psychological thriller about a taxi driver
battling bureaucracy and legal manipulation in China.
Pros: Johnny Ma’s debut feature is a knockout. This dark,
violent, and brooding tale puts a taxi driver (Gang Chen) down a philosophical
rabbit hole when he weighs the value of another man’s life. The film recalls
the finest Hong Kong action films as Ma crafts a compelling and suspenseful
story of a bureaucratic abyss and the lives it leaves dangling precariously
like leaves in the wind.
Cons: This Hong Kong-set film might not seem “Canadian” enough,
but that didn’t stop us from sending Incendies
or War Witch to the Oscars. The
main downside could be that Old Stone
already had an American theatrical run last November, so while its December
theatrical run in Canada technically meets eligibility, it could either be
compromised or be perceived to have maxed out its potential if it left theatres
before the Academy voted on last year’s Oscars.
Dir. Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat:
The Fast Runner), Natar Ungalaaq
Select festivals: TIFF, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Palm
Springs, Sydney, Seattle, imagineNATIVE
Select awards: Canada’s Top Ten, 2 Canadian Screen Award
nominations including Best Film, Best Indigenous Language Production
(imagineNATIVE)
Synopsis: Inspired by the John Ford film The Searchers, an
Inuit woman and her daughter are kidnapped by three Inuit men, while her
husband and son are away. The Inuit husband sets out on a journey to find his
family and punish the perpetrators.
Pros: The angle of remaking a classic Hollywood western from
an Inuit perspective is a novelty that could draw interest from American and
international voters. It’s also the film’s strength, since Kunuk offers a
visionary take on the film that rewrites the stereotypes and racism on which
the western genre resides. Plus, Kunuk has ample street cred thanks to the
success of Atanarjuat and this rare
Inuit production lets Canada showcase its history and diversity to an Academy acutely
aware of the need to revamp representation both behind the camera and in front
of it.
Cons: It’s really slow. Maliglutit
is half the length of Atanarjuat and
it feels twice as long. The film hasn’t had much success branching into
festivals outside of Canada, either, which indicates that programmers and
industry peers might not be as forgiving of the film’s pace as Canadians are.
Reception of the film was more politely enthusiastic than rapturous.
Dir. François Girard (The
Red Violin)
Festivals: TIFF
Awards: None
Synopsis: Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a
search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival
Molson Stadium.
Pros: Girard’s sweeping production spans centuries of
Canadian history from pre-contact days to present as it considers all the
people who’ve walked this land. The intricate narrative focuses on the site of
the McGill University football stadium where it’s believe Jacques Cartier first
made contacts with the Iroquois in the village of Hochelaga. The film is an
obviously fitting choice for the “Canada 150 submission” since it offers a
politically-correct take on our nation’s history and all the legacies both
positive and negative it entails. Production values are also outstanding, so Hochelaga might impress the voters from
below-the-line branches of the Academy as well. The film’s random opening on a
single screen in Medicine Hat, Alberta today indicates a fast track for
eligibility, while a cushy sneak peek in Montreal before TIFF indicates
Telefilm’s effort to get people excited about this film.
Cons: The film was somewhat lost in Toronto amongst showier
titles. Of the few reviews that surfaced, both Variety
and The
Hollywood Reporter were positive but noted that Hochelaga’s commercial potential in the States might be limited,
which could make a case against submitting it just as much as there’s an
argument for submitting it to help gain some notice. The film hasn’t had much
of a chance to prove itself, which could make it a relatively low-key contender
if Canucks aren’t invested in it. At the same time, we could help build
momentum for Hochelaga as it enters
the race and screens more widely across Canada.