Academy Announces 9 Foreign Film Nominees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed it’s list of films down from 65 to 9 in competition for the Best Foreign Film Award. I always find this to be such an interesting category because the range of films competing for a single golden naked dude is always so vast. Here’s the list…

• Revanche (Austria; Gotz Spielmann, director)
• The Necessities of Life (Canada; Benoit Pilon, director)
• The Class (France; Laurent Cantet, director)
• The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany; Uli Edel, director
• Waltz with Bashir (Israel; Ari Folman, director)
• Departures (Japan; Yojiro Takita, director)
• Tear This Heart Out (Mexico; Roberto Sneider, director)
• Everlasting Moments (Sweden; Jan Troell, director)
• 3 Monkeys (Turkey; Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director)

So, you may (or may not) be asking yourself “why does he have a photo from Let the Right One In attached to this post?” Here’s why… I think it thoroughly sucks that LTROI did not make the semi-final cut! Sure, I know it won’t win… I’m not THAT naive. But, it was a great film and original, but the Academy traditionally is not fond of “horror” movies. Of course, the award is likely to go to ‘Waltz With Bashir’ which is fine, because it’s apparently the coolest thing since sliced jalapenos. In fact, it would be really awesome if it raked in both the Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary Awards. With that said, I am still disappointed that it won’t get the glitz of being one of the five films listed before the big envelope opening occurs. What do you think? Do you like this list so far? Which foreign films did not make the list that you feel got the shaft? Let us know by leaving your comments.

[source: RottenTomatoes.com]