Introduction
Join us to watch (at home) and then discuss (in person) selections from the varied and rich 2006–2024 Best International Feature Films (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020). The winners of these Oscars are among the best films of each year. Watching foreign films allows us to learn more about other countries' customs and cultures, and promotes global understanding. It also allows us to see the human sides of each other in a world torn apart by war and social problems.
The rising profile of international films at the Oscars is the start of an overdue correction to Hollywood’s at times self-centered attitudes. It is also one of the most important—but least discussed—consequences of the ceremony’s parent organization, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), trying to become more diverse and global.
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by AMPAS. It is given to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States, usually with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.
Unlike other Academy Awards, the International Feature Film award is not presented to a specific individual (although it is accepted on-stage by its director), but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Over the years, the Best International Feature Film Award and its predecessors have been given predominantly to European films: out of the seventy-two awards handed out by the academy since 1947 to foreign language films, fifty-seven have gone to European films, seven to Asian films, five to films from the Americas and three to African films. Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini directed four Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award–winning motion pictures during his lifetime, a record that remains unmatched as of 2015 (if Special Awards are taken into account, then Fellini's record is tied by his countryman Vittorio De Sica).
The most awarded foreign country is Italy, with 14 awards won (including three Special Awards) and 29 nominations, while France is the foreign country with the most nominations (37 for 12 wins, including three Special Awards). Israel is the foreign country with the most nominations (10) without winning an award, while Portugal has the most submissions (34) without a nomination. In 2020 (92nd), South Korea's entrant Parasite became the first International Feature Film winner, as well as the first non-English language film overall, to win Best Picture.
Writer Vera Blasi, a part of the 2016 class of new Academy members, has credits including Woman on Top (2000), Tortilla Soup (2001), and Emperor (2012). She grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, which gave her a perspective on foreign language films. "One of the great rewards of watching foreign films is the infinite ways it can open up the world for you as a viewer. ... In an increasingly homogenized world, foreign films tend to focus more on human drama,” she observes. “Instead of being the usual types of movies, they tend to be more raw and unrefined, the same way true emotions are. I think it comes from the fact that these films often don’t have the budget for expensive pyrotechnics, so the only things turning into an orange ball of fire are human emotions!”
Scope
We will view at home, and then discuss during the SDG sessions, fourteen Best International Feature Films. Given the usual S/DG time constraints, this S/DG will take a broad—rather than a deep—look at films which the Academy members selected. The desired outcome is to understand better these major foreign films, and their influences—within both film appreciation and film studies contexts.
Some Recommended Areas and Topics for Discussions (As taken from past film SDGs)
Remember that our International films are much more than just the plot and story line, the back stories on the production, or the cast members. And that international films' time and place, context, values and background are grounded in foreign cultures, not our American culture.
1. The Basics:
— Year of Release, and Submitting country and Language(s)
— Producer, Director, Screenwriter(s), Cinematographer, Music/Composer, Editor
— The Cast
— Awards
2. Place within the overall “world of film.” (viz., Does this film “stand up” over time? Was it a product of its time and fashion, or a unique work of art?)
3. Setting of the film and Plot summary (Brief descriptions)
4. This film’s unique characteristics, techniques or breakthroughs
5. Director's own commentary on the film—Summary
6. Various critics’ reviews and commentaries—Summaries
7. Discussion about the film’s:
— Key themes, Symbology and Imagery
— Influences: Cultural, Societal, Stylistic, Political, Philosophical, Religious or Market audiences
— Interpretative frameworks (e.g., Auteur theory, Realism, Feminist film theory, etc.)
— Messages, or political or social commentary
— Screenplay/Screenwriting (Quality, uniqueness, …)
— Establishment of Time and Place, including foreign societal and cultural influences
— Main and Supporting Characters (and were the roles well- or mis-cast?)
— Mise-en-scène (composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting)
— Cinematography
— Montage (Assembly, Editing, Juxtapositioning or Special sequencing of shots)
— Music/score
— Special Effects
— Ending, “loose ends”, ambiguities, disconnects, surprises, etc.
8. Selected Important/Interesting scenes to view in class (Limited to < 15 minutes total so we’re not just re-watching the movie).
Giannetti, Louis, Understanding Movies, 13th Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2013 (General film-making practice, concept and terminology reference. Provides valuable insight into how movies communicate and convey meaning to their audiences through a unique network of language systems and techniques. )
Monaco, James, How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond, Art Technology, Language, History, Theory, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2009 (General film-making practice, concept and terminology reference)
Alan A. Armer, Writing the Screenplay: TV and Film, 2nd Edition, Waveland Press, Long Grove Illinois, 2002
Don Gold, Producing for Hollywood: A Guide for the Independent Producer, Allsworth Press, 2000
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Wikipedia sites for the various Best International Feature/Best Foreign Films
Rotten Tomatoes, New York Times, Sight and Sound, et al critiques and review websites
Senses of Cinema, Website has many fine film reviews