The New York Film Festival, which kicks off today, features world premieres for two hotly anticipated films—the Emmett Till drama, Till, and the story of the New York Times’ Harvey Weinstein investigation, She Said—but it will also be an opportunity for films that have already premiered to gain or lose momentum.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and over at Awards Insider I’ll be keeping a close eye on films like White Noise, Armageddon Time, and Decision to Leave as they play at the festival. It can be a make-or-break time for Oscar hopefuls, and I’m sure I’m not the only one watching it closely.
One other film playing at NYFF is Mia Hansen-Løve’s excellent One Fine Morning, starring Léa Seydoux, which I was able to see in Cannes. It’s a quiet, tender film, led by an affecting performance from Seydoux who plays a woman taking care of her ailing father. As my colleague David Canfield discovered after talking to Seydoux and several other actors who’ve starred in Hansen-Løve projects, the French director is a master of this gentle, thoughtful storytelling, due in part to the deep bonds she forms with her actors. So it came as a bit of a surprise when France didn’t select One Fine Morning as its Oscar submission for the international feature film this year, instead picking Alice Diop’s Saint Omer.
That’s the thing with the international-feature submission process—there is always a little bit of drama if you study it close enough, a topic we explored on this week’s episode of Little Gold Men. Over the past few weeks, several countries have revealed their promising picks—just yesterday it was announced that Mexico, as expected, had picked Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo. Other films that seem like strong contenders right off the bat include South Korea’s Decision to Leave from Park Chan-wook, Belgium’s Close from Lukas Dhont, and Austria’s Corsage, which is helmed by Marie Kreutzer and stars Vicky Krieps.
But along with many of these selections come interesting backstories and, often, a little bit of drama. You only need to look as far as India’s submission to see what I mean: Instead of selecting RRR, an action-adventure movie that’s been a surprise hit in both India and also in the US (reportedly earning north of $170 million worldwide), India chose to go with a coming-of-age drama about—wait for it—a young boy’s love of movies called Last Film Show. Adam McKay even spoke out on Twitter, calling the decision a “travesty.”
Other surprising decisions have included Hong Kong’s selection of crime thriller Where the Wind Blows, which was suspiciously pulled at the last minute from the Hong Kong Film Festival, citing “technical reasons.” And perhaps most dramatic of all: Russia recently announced that it would not be submitting a film this year, and the chairman of Russia’s submission board stepped down in protest, reportedly stating that he was not consulted on the decision.
We’re nearing the end of the submission period—the deadline is October 3, and a short list of 15 films will be announced on December 21—so if you’re looking for something to watch, seek out some films that have been submitted in this category. There are definitely some treasures to be found among them.
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