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    You are at:Home»News»Academy Awards announces nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Award

    Academy Awards announces nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Award

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    By Luz Aguado on 01/23/2012 News

    Academy Awards announced the five nominees for the Best Foreign language Film Award. The five nominees are: A Separation (Iran), Bullhead (Belgium), Footnote (Israel), In Darkness (Poland), and Monsieur Lazhar (Canada).

    Cinema Without Borders’ visitors, could go to our Home Page and vote for the film that they believe will win the Best Foreign Language Award Film.

    A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) Iran, directed by Asghar Farhadi, (Also Asghar Farhadi is nominated for the Best Original Screenplay for A Separation): When bank employee Nader refuses to emigrate, his wife Simin sues for divorce, citing better opportunities for their daughter outside the country. After Simin decamps from the family apartment, Nader hires Razieh, a devout young woman with a four-year-old daughter to mind his Alzheimer-afflicted father. It soon becomes clear that the chador-clad Razieh is pregnant and looking after the wandering, incontinent, elderly man will tax her energy as well as her religious principles. Moreover, Razieh’s debt-ridden, out-of-work husband doesn’t know that she has taken the job, and would never allow her to enter the home of a strange man. Ultimately, fallout from an ugly argument pits Nader and Razieh against one another in the Iranian legal system, forcing all involved to consider the nature of loyalty, truth and integrity. Tense and dramatically complex, formally dense and morally challenging, this is writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s strongest work yet. The provocative plot casts a revealing light on contemporary Iranian society as it takes on issues of gender, class, justice and honor.

    Director: Asghar Farhadi
    Producer: Asghar Farhadi
    Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari
    Screenwriter: Asghar Farhadi
    Cinematographer: Mahmood Kalari
    Music: Sattar Oraki
    Principal Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat

    Bullhead, Belgium, directed by Michaël R. Roskam.
    Part thriller, part character study, Bullhead is an astoundingly stylish, muscular crime drama about gangsters and farmers, set against the backdrop of the Belgian cattle hormones mafia. It’s a tale of friendship and loyalty, betrayal and lost innocence. This is a film about cows and police informers, bulls and headbutts. Young Limburg cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West Flemish beef trader, but the assassination of a federal policeman and a mysterious secret from Jacky’s past set in motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences. Leading man Matthias Schoenaerts underwent two years of physical training and gained 27 kg to prepare for the role of Jacky, who, after a tragic event in his childhood, gets addicted to testosterone injections, turning him into a tormented muscle machine.

    Director: Michaël R. Roskam
    Producer: Bart van Langendonck
    Editor: Alain Dessauvage
    Screenwriter: Michaël R. Roskam
    Cinematographer: Nicolas Karakatsanis
    Music: Raf Keunen
    Principal Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Frank Lammers, Tibo Lammers

    Footnote: Israel, directed by Joseph Cedar
    It takes some chutzpah to fashion a gripping suspense film out of an academic spat between Talmudic scholars, but that’s what Joseph Cedar (Beaufort) has accomplished here, and in high style too. Professor Eliezer Shkolnik is at the peak of his career, respected by his peers at home and abroad, admired by his students and liked by everyone. Well, almost everyone… His father Uriel is not so easily impressed, and can barely contain his disdain for a mere “folklorist”. But all that changes when the old man is finally recognized with the state’s most prestigious academic award, the Israel Prize that has eluded him every year for decades. At last, his life’s work is vindicated. But even now, he can’t quite bring himself to lower his lofty standards and concede the merits of his son’s work… Cedar’s masterstroke is to make the son, Eliezer, so sympathetic. The Shkolniks’ rivalry is one-sided – yet multi-faceted. Reminiscent of the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man in its swift, acerbic comic tone, its bravura editing strategies and fundamental profundity, Footnote is utterly compelling and guaranteed to generate rich discussion.

    Director: Joseph Cedar
    Producer: David Mandil, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Joseph Cedar
    Editor: Einat Glaser Zarhin
    Screenwriter: Joseph Cedar
    Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf
    Music: Amit Poznansky
    Principal Cast: Shlomo Bar Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Alisa Rosen, Alma Zak, Daniel Markovich, Micah Lewesohn, Yuval Scharf, Nevo Kimchi

    In Darkness: Poland, directed by Agnieszka Holland
    Set in Lvov in 1943, and based on a true story, this multi-strand epic tells the story of Polish sewer worker and petty thief Leopold Socha and a fateful encounter that changes his life. The devoutly Catholic Socha has no particular sympathy for the persecuted Jews. His life, and that of ordinary Poles, seems difficult enough under the subsequent Soviet and German occupations. When Socha encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the threatened liquidation of the ghetto by hiding in the cramped, rat-infested sewers, they offer him money to guide them to a secret spot and provide them with food. Soon, above ground, the ghetto erupts in flames and the Germans execute anyone caught succoring the fleeing inhabitants. As the months pass, the group underground dwindles in number, their finances exhausted. At the same time, Socha’s task becomes increasingly difficult… Justly celebrated for WWII dramas such as Angry Harvest and Europa, Europa, acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland offers a compelling look at the complex reasons a person might risk his life for others.

    Director: Agnieszka Holland
    Producer: Eric Jordan, Leander Carell, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Patrick Knippel, Juliusz Machulski, Steffen Reuter
    Editor: Michal Czarnecki
    Screenwriter: David F Shamoon
    Cinematographer: Jolanta Dylewska
    Music: Antoni Komasa-Lazarkarkiewicz
    Principal Cast: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup, Kinga Preis, Krzysztof Skonieczny

    Monsieur Lazhar, Canada, directed by Philippe Falardeau
    Bachir Lazhar is a middle-aged Algerian immigrant seeking political refuge in Quebec. Bachir jumps at the opportunity to replace a Montreal elementary school teacher who committed suicide one night after class. The school’s overworked principal is initially relieved. The story focuses on Bachir’s relationship with two of his pupils: a ten-year-old boy traumatized by discovering the body of his teacher, and a girl whose interpretation of the event and resentment toward her friend provoke unforeseen revelations. To these children in shock, Bachir’s traditional teaching methods may well provide the structure they need–even if, to Bachir’s dismay, the work of Balzac remains beyond their reach. A luminous and tender tale about the lessons we learn from one another, regardless of age, this complex character study speaks of loss, innocence and imposture in an eloquent yet simple manner.

    Director: Philippe Falardeau
    Producer: Luc Dery, Kim McCraw
    Editor: Stéphane Lafleur
    Screenwriter: Philippe Falardeau
    Cinematographer: Ronald Plante
    Music: Martin Leon
    Principal Cast: Fellag, Sophie Nelisse, Émilien Neron, Danielle Proulx, Brigitte Poupart

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    Luz Aguado

    Luz Aguado was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and grew up in East Los Angeles. She is the oldest of four siblings. Prior to attending The Art Institute, Luz was a student at the University of California Riverside where she studied biology and aspired to become a medical doctor. Now she studies Media Arts and Animation at The Art Institute of Los Angeles and hopes of one day having the opportunity to work for Disney Animation Studios. Three dimensional animation and the innovative techniques that have given animation a more realistic appearance is something that she wishes to focus on while at The Art Institute.

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