OSCARS 2023: The Submissions from Eastern Europe (22 films)

And here's the last (and largest batch)! I've spent most of the last month travelling and sadly have only seen a few of these films, even though it's by far the most interesting group! But the list will be announced later today so there's no time left....

Number of Countries That Have Participated in the Past: 24

Number of Countries Participating this year: 22

FRONTRUNNERS:

        

1.  UKRAINE- “Klondike” (Letterboxd: 3.5)

2.  ARMENIA- “Aurora’s Sunrise” (3.6)

3.  ALBANIA- “A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On” (3.5) 

Like at Eurovision, Ukraine's arthouse drama "Klondike", about the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, will benefit from the sentimental feelings and pro-Ukraine sentiment. Don't get me wrong, "Klondike" is supposed to be a very good film. I'm seeing it later this week, but I've heard it's a little too arthouse to make it under normal circumstances. But emotion will help. 

Armenia's "Aurora's Sunrise" is an animated documentary about the fascinating life of genocide survivor Aurora Mardiganian, but it's also an original work of art. Far better than "Waltz with Bashir" and emotionally equal (and visually superior) to "Flee", this will be on the shortlist if enough people see it, and I think it would have qualified easily under the old rules. (Why is it not on the Documentary Feature list? It could potentially win.....)

Albanian wild card "A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On" is just a hunch that probably won't pay off but I'm still ranking it high. This quiet indie is about a pair of deaf and mute adult twins (played by Portuguese twins who learned Albanian Sign Language for the film) who learn that they have a condition that will make them lose their sight and, therefore, their entire world. Reviews have been strong and the plot couldn't get more "Oscarier".....but it's true that nobody has heard of the film and it's going to need a lot of word of mouth on the committee... 

DARK HORSES:

    

4.  POLAND- “EO” (3.6)

5.  BULGARIA- “In the Heart of the Machine” (3.4)

6.  CROATIA- “Safe Place” (3.8)

BULGARIA

In A Nutshell: An all-star (for Bulgaria) prison drama set during Communist times. 

Pros: I've heard anecdotally that this is one of the strongest films in the group that nobody has ever heard of. The committee has shown that it has enjoyed prison dramas ("Night of the Kings", "A Prophet") in the past. 

Cons: No buzz. The film came in second place even in its home country. 

CROATIA

In A Nutshell: A man's attempted suicide causes friction in a family of three. 

Pros: Some of the strongest critical notices in this group, and a compelling "based on true story" (the director's) narrative. 

Cons: This is a small drama from a small country. I'm skeptical that enough people will see it to make a dent. 

POLAND-

In A Nutshell: A Candide-style journey around modern-day Europe...if Candide were a donkey

Pros: The film has being doing great with U.S. critics- including New York Film Critics (winning both Best Foreign Film awards) and the National Board of Review. 

Cons: I haven't met anyone who likes it....Everyone tells me it's slow and boring. I look forward to judging for myself. 

A STRONG SHOWING:

 

7.  SLOVAKIA- “Victim” (3.1)

8.   MACEDONIA- “Happiest Man in the World” (3.4)

9.  MOLDOVA- “Carbon” (3.2)

10.  ROMANIA- “Immaculate” (3.2)

 

MIDDLE OF THE PACK:

        

11.  KOSOVO- “Looking for Venera” (3.3)

12.  SLOVENIA- “Orchestra” (3.5)

13.  LATVIA- “January” (3.5)

14.  CZECH REPUBLIC- “Il Boemo” (3.3)

 

AN UPHILL BATTLE:

       

15.  SERBIA- “Darkling” (3.3)

16.   ESTONIA- “Kalev” (3.7)

17. LITHUANIA- “Pilgrims” (2.9)

18.  HUNGARY- “Blockade” (3.3)

 Lithuania's "Pilgrims" was one of the most pleasant surprises of my film year, and it's one of my favorites of this year's submissions. However, I'm clearly in the minority, so it really doesn't have a chance of advancing to the next round. "Pilgrims" follows two young people as they go on a mysterious road trip visiting the locations of a brutal crime that happened four years before. Who are they, and why are they doing this? That's revealed slowly but completely. Though it starts off slow, it's a great screenplay with a cathartic ending. 

Serbia's "Darkling" is practically a horror movie (and the director should be hired to make one) about one of the last Serb families in rural Kosovo. The family of three is the victim of a series of spooky, nighttime incidents (dead livestock, broken fencing etc.) causing the mother and daughter to want to flee, like almost all of their neighbors. But the grandfather insists on staying behind. 

As for Estonia and Hungary, they've selected little-known films- both set in 1990- about prominent moments in their late Cold War history. "Kalev" (Estonia) is about the Estonian national basketball team participating in the Soviet national championships at a moment when most of the country was demanding independence and refusing to take part in Soviet life and institutions. It's not particularly memorable or exciting and it can't seem to figure out whether to be a political movie or a sports movie. "Blockade" is about a taxi strike that served as one of the first signs of protest against Hungary's Communist regime. These are definitely going to resonate more with local audiences familiar with local history rather than AMPAS. 

BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR:

  

19.  BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA- “A Ballad” (3.1)

20.  GEORGIA- “A Long Break” (3.0)

21.  MONTENEGRO- “Elegy of Laurel” (2.8)

22.  AZERBAIJAN- “Creators” (2.2)

As always, I'm so happy that the smaller countries send films. Even when they're not nominated, they're almost always a fascinating look at the country, its people, its language and its culture. I've discovered a lot of wonderful films and directors among these underdogs. 

Azerbaijan has had a great film year with a number of films at international film festivals. However, they have explicably decided to send a 60-minute documentary about Soviet architecture (it's possibly the others didn't get screened in cinemas). Needless to say, this is a non-starter. Neighboring Georgia, selected "A Long Break", a (very) talky drama about a man plotting revenge at a school reunion. Georgia is my favorite country to visit, and I love Georgian cinema but I think this will lose a lot in the translation...I liked it because I know Georgian culture but I still felt like I was at dinner party with people I didn't know. 

From the former Yugoslavia, "Elegy of Laurel" was the only film that entered to represent Montenegro....This odd little movie features an old man whose wife leaves him at a health spa, whereupon he goes on a journey into the woods and meets a woman who used to be a snake. It keeps the viewer's attention but it really doesn't make too much sense. From neighboring Bosnia, "A Ballad" is Aida Begic's first venture into (slightly) lighter storylines, after years of making films about the Yugoslav wars. Unfortunately, critics haven't warmed to her new film as much as her earlier efforts. This story of an unemployed mother seeking custody of her daughter often feels as aimless as its main character, 

Who’s Missing?:  RUSSIA controversially announced that it would boycott the Oscars due to their own brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine, failing to submit a film for the first time since 1993. The head of the Russian Selection Committee- Oscar-nominated director Pavel Chukhrai- said he wasn’t consulted and that he had wanted to send a film. The only other country that’s absent is Russia’s ally, BELARUS, which submitted films from 2018-2020.

Genres: Slovenia and Moldova have sent comedies. Armenia and Azerbaijan have sent documentaries (Armenia’s submission is also an animated film).  Serbia's is almost (but not quite) a horror film. 

I’ve Already Seen: 8- Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, but I have five more screeners waiting to be watched before the end of the year….Too much travel recently!  

Number I Predicted Correctly: 9 out of 22…..Armenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Film I’m Most Excited To See: Definitely Moldova’s absurdist black comedy “Carbon” and Albania’s heart-rending “A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On”

Big Three Festivals: Very few!  

·         Cannes- Poland (Jury Prize)

·         Berlin- Ukraine (Audience Award, 2^nd Place)

·         Venice- Lithuania (Best Film, Horizons Section), Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia

Women Directors- Six out of 22: Aida Begić (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Maryna Er-Gorbach (Ukraine), Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia), Inna Sahakyan (Armenia), Norika Sefa (Kosovo) and Monica Stan (Romania). Co-director Monica Stan is only the second woman to represent Romania, and the first since 1973 (!).

Oldest and Youngest Directors- 84-year old Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland) is by far the oldest director in the entire competition (69-year old Rachid Bouchareb is #2). The youngest is probably 30-year old Monica Stan (Romania) 

Languages Represented- It’s a very confusing question. So many of the plots of this year’s Eastern European films feature a variety of languages: Slovenians visiting German-speaking Austria, Ukrainian migrants in the Czech Republic, Russians invading a bilingual region of Ukraine, an Armenian refugee escaping to the United States via Europe, a Czech artist living in Italy etc.

All I can say is that five of the films are in the Serbo-Croatian languages, two are in Albanian, and the rest are in a mishmash of Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, the three Baltic languages (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) and the three Caucasian languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian).

How Many Have a Chance at the Shortlist?- Maybe eight or nine?

Most Likely to Get Shorlisted/Nominated for the First Time- Probably Ukraine, for partly sentimental reasons

Buzziest Films: Probably “EO”

Letterboxd Ratings (as of 19 December 2022):      Best: Croatia (3.8), Worst: Azerbaijan (2.2, but with only 5 votes) and Montenegro (2.8)

Controversies and Changes:  Of course, the biggest controversy was the Russian Academy’s flip-flop and their decision to boycott the Oscars.

Bulgaria originally selected “Mother”, which is set in Kenya, but was informed that it had too much English. The director said that the producers had determined it was more than 50% in Bulgarian and Swahili and were surprised by the decision, noting that it was unclear to her whether they were supposed to count time, or words, or what…..

Oscar History:  Bosnia’s Aida Begić is representing her country for the fourth time following “Snow” (2008), “Children of Sarajevo” (2012) and “Never Leave Me” (2018).

Five other directors are here for a second time: Shamil Aliyev (Azerbaijan, “Steppe Man”), Viestur Kairish (Latvia, “The Chronicles of Melanie”), Gentian Koçi (Albania, “Daybreak”), Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia, “I’m From Titov Veles), and Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland, “11 Minutes”)

Of the 22 competing countries, only four have won (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland), four others have been nominated (Estonia, Georgia, Macedonia, Romania), and three others shortlisted (Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia). The other eleven are waiting for their first trip to the second round.

Most Notable Omissions: 

     

The most surprising omissions were Oscar winner Danis Tanovic’ “Not So Friendly Neighborhood Affair” (Bosnia), a topical comedy about life under COVID-19 and “RMN”, the latest from Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu. Oscar winner Jan Sverak’s “Bethlehem Night” (Czech Republic) was also shortlisted and snubbed, but it was never expected to be selected.

Also missing: “The Staffroom” (Croatia), “The Last Race” (Czech Republic), “Sleeping Beast” (Estonia), which reportedly lost by one vote after a reportedly “tense” debate, “Otar’s Death” (Georgia), “The Game” (Hungary), “The Balcony Movie” (Poland) and co-production “The Nightsiren”, which was shortlisted by both the Czechs and Slovaks.

I was also surprised by the omission of Bujar Alimani’s “The Albanian Virgin” but that may have been “too German” to compete for Albania.

Most Famous Faces: Just Isabelle Huppert, who has a small role in Poland’s “EO”. 

Last Year’s Race:  I really liked a lot of the Eastern Euro films from last year especially “Tereza37” from Croatia, “Brighton 4^th” from Georgia, “The Pit” from Latvia, “Bad Luck Banging” from Romania and “Bad Roads” from Ukraine (all A-), all of which would have made worthy nominees (but none of them even made the shortlist ☹). followed by Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo and Macedonia (B+), Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia (B-), Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Serbia (C+), Estonia and Slovakia (C-). I failed to see the films from Albania and the Czech Republic.