Academy Announces Record 58 Candidates

For Foreign Language Oscar

By Rich Drees

     October 25, 2005- This week the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences have released the list of the 58 countries vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award voting ballot, the highest number of entries the Academy has ever received. New to the competition this year are entries from Costa Rica, Fiji and Iraq.

     A pair of entries makes their way onto the list only after proving controversial in their home countries. The French film Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) came under fire from France’s independent producers union who felt that the selection of the film for consideration was “politically motivated.” Italy’s initial submission, Private from director Saverio Costanzo, was ruled ineligible by the Academy as none of its dialogue was in Italian. The country instead submitted director Cristina Comencini’s La Bestia Nel Cuore (Don’t Tell).

     According to the Academy’s rules, all submitted films will be screened by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Committee, who will vote in a secret ballot to nominate five films for the award.

     The 78^th Academy Award nominations are scheduled to be announced on January 31, 2006, with the awards ceremony being held on March 5, 2006.

     The 2005 submissions are- 

• Argentina, "El Aura," Fabian Bielinsky, director;

• Bangladesh, "Shyamol Chaya," Humayun Ahmed, director;

• Belgium, "The Child," Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, directors;

• Bolivia, "Say Good Morning to Dad," Fernando Vargas, director;

• Bosnia & Herzegovina, "Totally Personal," Nedžad Begović, director;

• Brazil, "Two Sons of Francisco," Breno Silveira, director;

• Bulgaria, "Stolen Eyes," Radoslav Spassov, director;

• Canada, "C.R.A.Z.Y.," Jean-Marc Vallée, director;

• Chile, "Play," Alicia Scherson, director;

• China, "The Promise," Chen Kaige, director;

• Colombia, "La Sombra del Caminante," Ciro Guerra, director;

• Costa Rica, "Caribe," Esteban Ramírez, director;

• Croatia, "A Wonderful Night in Split," Arsen Anton Ostojić, director;

• Cuba, "Viva Cuba," Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, director;

• Czech Republic, "Something Like Happiness," BohdanDenmark, "Adam's Apples," Anders Thomas Jensen, director;

• Estonia, "Shop of Dreams," Peeter Urbla, director;

• Fiji, "The Land Has Eyes," Vilsoni Hereniko, director;

• Finland, "Mother of Mine," Klaus Härö, director;

• France, "Joyeux Noel," Christian Carion, director;

• Georgia, "Tbilisi-Tbilisi," Levan Zakareishvili, director;

• Germany, "Sophie Scholl – The Final Days," Marc Rothemund, director;

• Hong Kong, "Perhaps Love," Peter Ho-Sun Chan, director;

• Hungary, "Fateless," Lajos Koltai, director;

• Iceland, "Ahead of Time," Ágúst Gudmundsson, director;

• India, "Paheli," Amol Palekar, director;

• Indonesia, "Gie," Riri Riza, director;

• Iran, "So Close, So Far," Reza Mir Karimi, director;

• Iraq, "Requiem of Snow," Jamil Rostami, director;

• Israel, "What a Wonderful Place," Eyal Halfon, director;

• Italy, "La Bestia Nel Cuore," Cristina Comencini, director;

• Japan, "Blood and Bones," Yoichi Sai, director;

• Korea, "Welcome to Dongmakgol," Kwang-hyun Park, director;

• Luxembourg, "Renart the Fox," Thierry Schiel, director;

• Mexico, "Al Otro Lado," Gustavo Loza, director;

• Mongolia, "The Cave of the Yellow Dog," Byambasuren Davaa, director;

• The Netherlands, "Bluebird," Mijke de Jong, director;

• Norway, "Kissed by Winter," Sara Johnsen, director;

• Palestine, "Paradise Now," Hany Abu-Assad, director;

• Peru, "Días de Santiago," Josué Méndez, director;

• Poland, "The Collector," Feliks Falk, director;

• Portugal, "Noite Escura," João Canijo, director;

• Puerto Rico, "Cayo," Vicente Juarbe, director;

• Romania, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Cristi Puiu, director;

• Russia, "The Italian," Andrei Kravchuk, director;

• Serbia & Montenegro, "Midwinter Night's Dream," Goran Paskaljević, director;

• Singapore, "Be with Me," Eric Khoo, director;

• Slovak Republic, "The City of the Sun," Martin Šulík, director;

• Slovenia, "The Ruins," Janez Burger, director;

• South Africa, "Tsotsi," Gavin Hood, director;

• Spain, "Obaba," Montxo Armendáriz, director;

• Sweden, "Zozo," Josef Fares, director;

• Switzerland, "Tout un Hiver sans Feu," Greg Zglinski, director;

• Taiwan, "The Wayward Cloud," Tsai Ming-liang, director;

• Tajikistan, "Sex & Philosophy," Mohsen Makhmalbaf, director;

• Thailand, "The Tin Mine," Jira Maligool, director;

• Turkey, "Lovelorn," Yavuz Turgul, director;

• Vietnam, "Buffalo Boy," Nguyen Vo Nghiem Mihn, director.