December 27-2013
In a major surprise, Asghar Farhadi’s newest film, “The Past,” did not make the announced shortlist for next year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
While the motion picture was by no means assured of an Oscar, it was almost taken for granted that it would make the shortlist of nine films to be considered.
The shortlist included no films distributed by Sony—distributor of “The Past”—which is a major purveyor of foreign language films and usually sees more than one of its films reach the nomination stage.
Also left off the shortlist was “Wadjda,” Saudi Arabia’s historic first Oscar submission, from woman director Haifaa Al Monsour. It, too, had been widely expected to make the shortlist.
“The Past” had been circulating in festivals since May. It opened commercially in the United States Friday, the very day the Oscar shortlist was announced.
The shortlist of nine came from two sources. Six were picked by several hundred Los Angeles Academy voters—members from various branches who see a required number of the 76 foreign movies that were submitted for Oscar consideration. The other three were chosen by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee led by producer Mark Johnson.
Reporter Anne Thompson, writing for Indiewire, said, “The sense among the voters was that ‘The Past’ did not measure up to Farhadi’s Oscar-winning ‘A Separation,’” which took the Oscar two years ago.
“The Past” tells the stories of several bad relationships, which tangle together in various unexpected ways.
Central to the plot is the tension between lead characters Marie and Ahmad, a couple going through a divorce. “The Past” opens with Marie (French actress Berenice Bejo) greeting her Iranian husband Ahmad (Iranian actor Ali Mosaffa) at the Paris airport, after she’s asked him to fly in from Tehran for the divorce. The awkward encounter is a glimpse of what to expect from the rest of the film – it is the story of broken people, working through their problems in a Parisian suburb.
Victoria Pavlova, writing on the website contactmusic.com, said, “It received praise for its use of space in particular, moving between rooms in a house to transition between scenes and reveal simultaneous moments in its various characters’ lives. On the other hand, the narrative complications can be hard to follow at times, but are compensated by the compelling acting and Farhadi’s expert direction.”
The nine short listed films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
• Belgium, “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Felix van Groeningen, director;
• Bosnia, “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker,” Danis Tanovic, director;
• Cambodia, “The Missing Picture,” Rithy Panh, director;
• Denmark, “The Hunt,” Thomas Vinterberg, director;
• Germany, “Two Lives,” Georg Maas, director;
• Hong Kong, “The Grandmaster,” Wong Kar-wai, director;
• Hungary, “The Notebook,” Janos Szasz, director;
• Italy, “The Great Beauty,” Paolo Sorrentino, director;
• Palestine, “Omar,” Hany Abu-Assad, director.
The nine-film shortlist will be further narrowed to five final Oscar nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles.
The list of nominees in all Oscar categories will be announced January 16 and the annual Academy Awards will be handed out in a televised ceremony March 2.