Oscar narrows Foreign Language Films down to 9

Brazil’s entry “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” makes the cut for Oscar’s final 9
Narrowed down from 63 films to nine by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film committee in Los Angeles, the nine final films will be narrowed down further in Phase II by a group from both New York and Los Angeles consiting of Academy members.
The nine films are:
Austria
“The Counterfeiters,” Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Brazil
“The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” Cao Hamburger, director
Canada
“Days of Darkness” Denys Arcand, director
Israel
“Beaufort” Joseph Cedar, director
Italy
“The Unknown” Giuseppe Tornatore, director
Kazakhstan
“Mongol” Sergei Bodrov, director
Poland
“Katyn” Andrzej Wajda, director
Russia
“12” Nikita Mikhalkov, director
Serbia
“The Trap,” Srdan Golubovic, director
Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Perhaps many are surprised that Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” which won the Golden Palm in Cannes was not in the top 9 films. I am not. I believe that the Academy’s membership might have been put off by the abortion subject matter, although the film was very well made and the impact lasting. Additionally, some are upset that France’s “Persepolis” did not make the cut, but I believe that the film was not as good as the ones listed above.
Other snubbings include “The Orphanage” but it remains to be seen as many critics will be very harsh against this list of nine films - and most of them are films that they haven’t seen so they will have no way to compare.
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