Foreign Films Nominated For The Best Picture Oscar

In contrast, foreign directors have been nominated 30 times.

Z (Algeria; 1979)

*1969. My pick, if only for the soundtrack and the molto furioso pacing.

Z over Grand Illusion.

Renoir

Cries and Whispers, because I love this poster:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWYwY2JkOTQtNTcyZS00ZDE3LWE0NDUtM2FkMzI5MmMyNGViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzI1NzMxNzM@._V1_.jpg

In 1990, Terence Davies presented a great 'masterclass' on Cries and Whispers for C4 TV that I'd love to see again...wonder if it's on Youtube...

That poster actually shows a flashback within the film, with a totally different color palette from the main part

In contrast, foreign directors have been nominated 30 times.

― I Never Promised You A Hose Harden (Eric H.), Friday, November 30, 2018 10:02 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for foreign language films? or does something like inarritu for birdman or cuaron for gravity count?

No, for foreign films. (Actually 28, since I didn’t count Letter from Iwo Jima or Babel as foreign films in this poll.)

It's about time one of these things won Best Picture, huh?

never seen Z, but I can't imagine anything is better than Grand Illusion

Fingers crossed for The Guilty!

Cries and Whispers without a second thought, though I do love The Emigrants (and The New Land).

Although, is there a reason why The Artist doesn't qualify? It's a French production.

That poster actually shows a flashback within the film, with a totally different color palette from the main part

Yes! It's fun image searching Cries and Whispers - more red than anything this side of an Argento film, and perhaps his first really great colour film. Cries and Whispers def another horror-adjacent, haunted Bergman, which is why I love it so.

The best digital 'restoration' I've ever seen was the print of Grand Illusion that toured UK cinemas maybe three or four years ago. It made the film and the performers seem everso alive and 'present' - the beauty of their faces so fresh. It was uncanny, in its way.

bcz we wish it had never been made

xp

I'm guessing the definition here is foreign LANGUAGE (so no Brit, Australian etc films either)

wait was The Artist in English?

it was in bullshit

it was silent!

(plus music stolen from Vertigo)

Wasn't there one line spoken, and in English?

yes

good poll idea

It was a French production, though, right? And therefore strictly speaking a 'Foreign Film'? Though that would also mean a couple of British winners, I suppose...

Ah, okay, I never saw it. Wikipedia says French intertitles.

We don't have to talk about The Artist.

how can this be anything but Grand Illusion? The only crap entries are the two '90s Miramax entries.

My ranking:

Grand Illusion
The Emigrants
Z
Amour
Cries and Whispers
Crouching Tiger

I hope the Criterion edition reminded watchers of how great The Emigrants and The New Land are.

xp the screening of The Artist that I saw had English intertitles as far as I can remember

gonna vote for crouching tiger cause it blew my mind when i was 11

i think i must have seen it 5 times or so in the theater on the block i lived on in college

even beat out seeing beavis & butthead do america there

I've only seen half of these, but Grand Illusion is an easy pick.

That Oscars ceremony was in Feb 1939, just a few weeks before the annexation of Czechoslovakia. I can imagine this film seeming very tragic just then.

Renoir over Bergman.

Z and The Emigrants are my big blindspots; the other two I haven't seen (and probably never will) are Il Postino or Amour.

yes, it's easy enough to change intertitles by country

Up until Hou's The Assassin, Crouching Tiger was def the best 'crossover' wuxia movie. It's a travesty The Assassin wasn't even submitted to the Academy for consideration.

Cries and Whispers strikes me as second tier Bergman -- would've preferred one of the early sixties films or Shame in its place -- but it classes up the company.

many xps - I know it was silent but weren't the intertitles in English? w/e glad it's not in this poll, movie sucked

ah ok nvm

that first closeup of Harriet Andersson in Cries and Whispers is one of the most stunning things I've seen Bergman do - to say nothing of her death scene, my god.

still want to know what Joachim Trier meant when he said The Emigrants & The New Land "taught (him) something fundamental about America, as a European."

I haven't seen Grand Illusion - it played here recently but I was busy and couldn't make it.

i was going to watch it on filmstruck any day now :````(

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Cries and Whispers, because Grand Illusion will take the (deserved) win.

Cries and Whispers

I've only seen Cries and Whispers once and it was towards the end of a Bergman mini-binge when I first got into him. It's good, but I remember not quite understanding how it held the strong reputation among his filmography that it did; for whatever reasons, I found Persona, The Seventh Seal, Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander, The Virgin Spring and even the relatively muted Wild Strawberries all far more striking. I definitely owe it a re-watch, but I still wonder what must have been going on in that particular year that got this film a shot at the big prize.

the first closeup of harriet andersson's face + her death scene = top tier

the one I don't get the love for is Fanny and Alexander, one of his scariest & most disturbing films, wrapped in Christmas camo. misleading title too

Have you seen the full Swedish TV version?

no, just the theatrical version. from what I've read the TV version has more magical realism but not much more Fanny. maybe I was just caught off guard - the bulk of the movie is a nightmare, a total and complete nightmare, in a way that is both more upsetting and more banal/less interesting than his other work (like The Virgin Spring, which I also think is top tier & bracing, just remarkable)

Don't love it either; it should've been called Alexander.

I've never seen the theatrical, but I'm assuming that, in simply giving us more, the nightmarish aspects are balanced out by some of the more whimsical and nostalgic material. There's a scene where the father tells the kids a story involving a chair that may be my single favourite scene in any movie ever.

Really, the question should've been which is worse, between Life is Beautiful and ... well, actually no, that one is clearly the worst.

(Still embarrassing tho that Il Postino is on this list.)

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