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Oscars 2026 – International Film – Nominees and beyond · CinemaHounds - A Lorehounds Podcast

• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: Hello Senophiles at large and welcome back to the Cinema Hounds series of deep dives into the Oscars 2026.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm Alicia, your guide to this year's 50 Oscar nominees and beyond.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: If you haven't yet, check out this year's Kickoff episode where David and I responded to the nominations and previewed this year's 10 Best Picture nominees and shared some surprises and stats and key races.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: And since then, I've been joined for other episodes by subject matter experts to look at the shorts races and production design costumes and makeup and hair.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: Not to mention the independent spirit and BAFTA awards bonuses, so check those out as well if you haven't yet.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: I have to say I am particularly fond of the makeup and hair rates this year, which if you have listened to that episode, you've heard at least when I talk about why.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I also always love one of my favorite categories every year is the International Films.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that is the focus of today's episode I am joined by Mexican Film Critic, Ector Cerrano, to discuss the International Films, what's nominated and what else we think should have been nominated.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is just such an expensive category that should really have 10 nominees, so we'll tell you what else we would put on that list, and then stick around until the end for a preview of what's coming up next.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: As usual, we will talk about the movie premises and some production details when it's relevant, but we will avoid film spoilers.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, without further ado, let's get into it.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I am here with Ector Sorano, Mexican film critic with the blog and instacite el cine filo latino, I'll put the link in the show notes for those of you who can read Spanish and are interested, Ector you are specialized in short film, but you are also a general death racer.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: So how's your death race going?
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I must say that, well, first of all, thank you for that introduction, I'm very honored.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've always wanted to do this, you know, this is my first podcast ever.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: Exciting.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm very honored and I'm also excited.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, yes, I have a blog which is, well, it was just a personal project of mine when I started it, but then he grew to something bigger.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: I try to specialize in short films.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is a blog and Instagram page and just now I'm starting to have a journalistic word.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: You could save that in some Mexican publication.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Mexican paper is Mexican magazines.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: Awesome.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: How's your death race going?
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'll say that this is a perfect year for me because I managed to watch some of the short films before they were announced as no means even, before they were announced as short-listed short films.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: And for the feature films, you've been though there's always one or two that are quite difficult together, with difficult to watch at the theater.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that's pretty good.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, okay.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, it just was released on digital today.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, whoo, that's where record.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'll say this will come out after that.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, if you're listening to this Marty Supreme is out on digital, but we won't be talking about Marty who's surprised today.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: Today, we're going to talk about these.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we won't be talking about that.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: Today we're going to be talking about the best international feature film which this award used to be known as Best Foreign Language Film from 1956 to 2020.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: Before 1956, they would just give out occasional or regular but not every year honorary awards to a single film and then they're like let's make this an actual competitive category.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, so the best international feature film is awarded to the director of the film since 2014, but always to the submitting country as a whole, and um, this is definitely a field that's been largely dominated by European films.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: 59 of the winners have been European 14 from Italy, 12 from France, although France has the most nominations with 41, and then to compare to that, only 9 from Asia, 6 from the Americas, outside the US, of course, and 3 to African films.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: So are you sensing a shift in that at all?
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think we are sensing a shift, and I wanted to talk about this when we got to Oliver Lash's film, see that, because he made a comment, I don't know when he did it, but it was
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: He was complaining about how Brazilian people got a lot of influence into the academy and that's why they got nominated and it was, well, it struck me a lot because I thought we are not really.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: He said they would nominate a shoe, right?
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: exactly.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: He said exactly that and it made me feel rather, well, not uncomfortable per se, but I think that it made me feel disappointed because if that's the way they see us, if that's the way they see American, well, as a whole continent, the Americas, if that's the way they perceive our cinema, then we're doomed.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, I think that there is because I mean, we'll talk about Brazil today, obviously, as well, but I think that because Brazil has like I've been saying to people like I've been starting to learn to read Portuguese just because Brazilians have become so dominant online in the entertainment space in various ways.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, and I think people are feeling that and then yeah, it's really the facts that I talked about it in the in the best picture preview episode, but The fact that secret agent is nominated this year and of course, What was I'm still here was nominated last year People are thinking like, oh, this is a trend, but this is just two years.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is a very new trend if it does become one
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, it's not, it's not really a bad influence if it becomes a trend.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because, well, I won't judge, but friends, for example, has been submitting films that are kind of problematic sometimes.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And even though they're very, we dedicated it in time.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: We dedicated an entire episode to Amelia Perez last year with a Mexican guest.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: So please, anyone who's interested in it, check it out.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, yes, I get it out.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even though I'm not the one who judge.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I don't really judge Jack O' the ad with that movie because I feel where he's coming from.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know that he likes to portray what he feels are the struggles of Mexican people.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I guess that if you wanted to do that he could have just be here a little longer.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's the thing is I say that in any, in all cases, if you want to portray a particular place or a particular profession or something like that, then I do recommend having advisors who know a lot about that.
• 8:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: But anyway, exactly.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: But the, okay, so what you do, that's not required of anyone, but what is required is that films that are eligible, they must have first released in the country that is submitting them during the eligibility period, which is not for most.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: Films now for the for the other awards eligibility period is, you know, the calendar year in question for international awards because there's a few different extra steps involved there in terms of the selection within the home country, the eligibility period is usually something like October to October, but that can shift.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it must have been a theatrical release and it's home country for at least seven days in a row.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it must be primarily in a language other than English.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: There's no longer, there used to be a rule that had to be an official language of the submitting country, but that's, they took that rule away now.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: But the submitting country must have had, quote, unquote, sufficient control over the production and to submit the paperwork correctly.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm crying for Thailand's film, which I loved, which didn't submit.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it was a very, very good one.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I thought it was very creative.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: It would have liked it to be nominated, shortlisted, winner.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, I don't, so we're talking about it.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's both, oh, useful ghost.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: We'll come back to it at the end when we talk about other misses in this category.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, it's such a shame.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, it was such a competitive year.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if it would have been nominated, but it was one of my favorite personally.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, me too.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: Another controversial rule is that no US and by US that also includes Puerto Rican films not in English are eligible.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that's come up with films from like Letters to Iwajima to Manari a few years obviously any Puerto Rican films going to be largely in Spanish and so they are they're eligible for
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, because they're called international film.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's what it's called.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: Not like in the baff does, they call it was a best film, not in the English language.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that's more specific.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: And for the baff does, they require UK release, but there's no restriction on nationalities.
• 10:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: So we'll talk about some films that were nominated for baff does later that are not eligible for the Oscars.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that sucks.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, do you think that the US should be able to submit non-English films to this category?
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: This may sound a little harsh, but I think that they shouldn't, because I see that a lot of American films have this kind of special treatment when they have the campaigns and for international films.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's, I don't know, it's harder for us to get inside the US.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And even though they know the robes and they know how to do it,
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't talking about that.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think I refer to the fact that they are actually very hesitant to read subtitles or to even think, Oh, this comes from Mexico or this comes from a well quote unquote third world country and I don't know Maybe if they came from the US we would be a lot of feature films from the US nominated and I don't know if I would like that
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: No, I completely see that point.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: I guess the counterpoint is that, as you say, because Americans hate reading subtitles, those films are at a disadvantage compared to English language films from the US.
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: So they sort of fall into, you know, in between the cracks, but yeah, you make a good point as well.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even though I loved Minari and I loved letter from Iwujima, but that's just two movies that I think are very good examples.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I started to think about this, particularly in women's minority, like, I don't know, 2021.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm just pulling that out of the air.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm not really sure.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: 2021, I think.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, I, I love to that and I felt like it got the short drift because it is, for anyone doesn't know, it starts Steven June.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's set in the, it's about a Korean immigrant family in the U.S. and it is largely in Korean and I felt like it fell between the facts because of that.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, but yeah, yeah, he make a good point as well.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, yes, and it is served to be there.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Mm-hmm.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: If it had been a co-production with Korea, Korea could have submitted it instead.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I don't know that they would have, because they would rather submit a film set and clear.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and again, yeah, exactly.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And again, we have this, uh, this rule that accepts it from being nominated.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: It when the production country, well, the country that submit in it, uh, wasn't involved, like, how 60%, 70, I don't know the numbers.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: But a lot of the production has to be inside that country.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, right.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and then the other controversial rule is that it must be chosen by the country itself.
• 13:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: And this is there are particular countries that are regularly called out for that.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: We'll talk about it a bit today with Iran where, you know, Iranian films, the best Iranian films often get submitted by other countries because they have.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: political protest content and the filmmakers are persecuted, you know, under arrest things like that.
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, uh, but it's, it's decided by each country's, you know, they, each country has their own system.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it's not necessarily controlled by the central government.
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: For example,
• 14:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: This year, Israel's submission, Israel is they have the Ophir award as their biggest award ceremony and the winner of that automatically is the one that submitted to the Oscars.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: And so they submitted this year one called the C, which is told from the perspective of a young Palestinian boy and there were people in the government who were very unhappy about that, but they don't get to have that say in Israel.
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, they hit it.
• 14:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: But obviously, in other countries like Iran, they do.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it really depends.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: And yeah, you don't want to like, I don't even know how to fix that problem.
• 14:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Do you have any thoughts about it?
• 15:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I really don't, because that's happened in my country, not anymore, I think, or I hope.
• 15:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's happened in the 80s, I think.
• 15:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's just the government here is the one day.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: gets just artists into trouble.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that they don't really deserve it.
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just a movie it's just a film.
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if I have an option because their soul is going to be trouble.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: They do at least say the designated organization has to be composed of people from the film industry, but that's obviously, that's a very loose definition.
• 15:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's a very loose definition because even in my country, there's been a little of controversy around that because we have some actors who are paid to change their perspectives and stuff, their opinions and stuff.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then we are informed that they was just biased, you know, that it wasn't really fair equal.
• 16:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say what is the best way to do it.
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: But this is how it's done now.
• 16:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then once the films are submitted, and they put out a list and say, okay, these films are officially eligible if they didn't mess up their paperwork.
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: I let them, sorry, I'm going to keep crying about that film.
• 16:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: Then there is since 2022, the way that they do it, there is first an international feature film preliminary committee
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then after that, an international feature film nominating committee, Nero's those 15 down to the five final nominees.
• 16:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: And of course we're going to be talking about the five final nominees today.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: This year, two of them are best picture.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: There was hope for three of them, although I'd say four of them had a shot in the best picture category.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: And just FYI, we're going to talk about movie premises and production stuff, but we're going to avoid film spoilers, because we won't assume that you've seen all these movies yet.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, most of them are very important to like not to share details, because that's the core part of the movies.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, so the five nominees, it was just an accident submitted by France, the Secret Agent from Brazil, sentimental value, from Norway, Serat, from Spain, and the voice of Hind Rajab submitted by Tunisia.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: And you know, I would say like the voice of Hind Rajab, it's difficult to spoil, but Serat.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: You gotta be careful.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: We talk about that one.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: But where would you like to start?
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Which would you like to start with?
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that we could do it alphabetically.
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, all right.
• 18:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: All right.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: So let's jump up to the top.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was just an accident.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: All right, I'm gonna try to say this in Persian.
• 18:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yek Tassadov is sad, sorry.
• 18:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure that was terrible, but I tried.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: On some plaxi don't.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I'm better at French.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: Surprise.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: So please, directed by Jafarp and Nahi.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is his first and second nomination this year.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: And submitted by France, this is a co-production with Iran and Luxembourg and the languages spoken are Persian and Azerbaijani.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: And this is, we're talking about the controversy in Iran.
• 18:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: It is often the case that other countries will submit Iranian movies that would not get submitted at home.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, and the reason for this is the plot is an unassuming mechanic as a reminder of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse capital.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: And we will also be talking about this in the best original screenplay category.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is the one that was expected to get that third best picture nom nomination perhaps or maybe
• 19:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: but that didn't end up happening, which is kind of a surprise because this one, the palm door, the biggest prize it can this year.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: And Pinau, he's just really loved.
• 19:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: He's one of just a handful of directors.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's one, the palm door, a con, the golden bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the Golden Line of Venice.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: And you know, there's a lot of,
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: sympathy and empathy for him because of his history, you know, he was again because of this film.
• 19:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: He, you know, was a, again, imprisoned.
• 20:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
• 20:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: And the obviously around is more relevant than ever again in the news at the moment.
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: So and people just loved this film.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it's a bit of a surprise.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: We're
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was totally surprised because I watched F1, which I think is the biggest thief of all time.
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: They just stole, it was just an accident nomination and I just felt that it was there.
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was just so obvious for me that it would be there and when I was watching it, I was like
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: ending now, where's it was just an accident.
• 20:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was completely infuriate infuriating.
• 20:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, the reason I said rather than the secret agent is because I have this interfering, like you said, the favoring of English language, American movies, I thought if there were three in the best picture category that would have been really remarkable and I thought
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: But this is the first time in years that the winner of the Palm door account did not get a better picture nomination.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I know when I liked it more than triangle of sadness I did too.
• 21:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I would say it was just an accident is
• 21:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: one of my favorites in this category.
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: I think for me, my two favorites in this category, I guess are that in sentimental value.
• 21:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I totally agree.
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even though I love cheering for my Latin American fellows.
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: Sure.
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just didn't like the, well, the secret agent as much as I did with the other two.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right, so yeah, I also like I love I love cheering for Brazil because of Brazilian super fun.
• 22:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: They're fun in the fandom, you know, and and I love Wagner more.
• 22:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: So okay, let me just say it was just an accident.
• 22:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: Only got 10 million at the box office.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: We don't know the budget.
• 22:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, it is available now to watch on video on demand.
• 22:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's an hour and 43 minutes long.
• 22:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: If you want to check it out, but since we're talking about the secret agent, let's move into setting that up, that one did slightly better at the box office.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: It got 16 million over a 5 million budget, also available to watch on video on demand.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: This one is much longer, two hours and 41 minutes, and I felt that run time, I think.
• 22:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, O Agente Cicretto, directed by Cleber Mendoza Filo, this is a first nomination this submitted by Brazil, language Brazilian Portuguese, and the plot is Brazil, 1977, a time of great mischief.
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: In 1977 Brazil, technology specialists Marcelo is fleeing a mysterious past returns to receive in search of peace, but realizes a city is far from the refuge he seeks.
• 23:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: And we did talk about this a bit in our best picture preview, and we'll be talking about it in best actor category and casting as well.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, what are your feelings on?
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I really, really loved it, just I wouldn't say that I, I don't know, it's very personal.
• 23:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is very personal for me to say because this is about my, not just my country, but Latin America, so whole.
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that, uh,
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: What I loved the most about that, it was the approach.
• 23:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because the approach is 1977, not just a historical setting.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it was very personal for him too, because he talks about remembering the smell, textures, the way Brazil felt at that time.
• 24:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I know that Mexico is really, really far from Brazil, but it feels lived in just as if I were watching something.
• 24:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: that was made in Mexico.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's this idea that every society has its own logic and that logic shapes how people behave, what they accept.
• 24:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know that for a lot of people, the leg scene was very disturbing because they didn't really understand it.
• 24:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: But we do Latin American people do because it was a whole idea back then.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the film really captures that sense of normality around things that shouldn't feel normal, at all, like the violence.
• 24:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: For us Latin Americans, we have normalized what violence feels like, and for us is almost routine, or just is feeling more like a performance than something real.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to compare this to last years.
• 25:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm so here because it is talking about the same period, the same circumstances, more or less, from a different perspective, but with a completely different tone.
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I think I went in, you know, I love Wagner Mora.
• 25:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: He's just really a star.
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: David and I talked about this a lot in another episode.
• 25:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: And obviously, you know, I'm not surprised about the nomination.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: The director is also a Brazilian darling and a can darling.
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, for me, the reason why this is not one of my favorites in this category is that it was, you know, if you compare it with it was just an accident.
• 25:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: me entering thoughts where that leave you piecing together what exactly is going on until eventually comes together at the end and both of them have sort of unsettling endings, I'll say.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yes, but I felt with the secret agent for some reason for me it was
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: Like there was, I, how do I say it?
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes the pacing didn't wear like, it was just an accident really built to a crescendo for me for the secret agent, the pacing was sometimes interrupted by itself and I think it's the editing that I don't love with it and there were things like, I mean, this is a, this is a spoiler from the trailers.
• 26:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: So sorry, quick spoiler from the trailers, but Marcello is not, that's not his real name.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: And they will tell you, like, five times during the movie, they'll bring the movie to a screeching halt to be like, did you get it?
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you get it?
• 26:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's not like I get it.
• 26:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: I get it.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: He's a secret agent.
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I got that.
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: I got that already from the poster.
• 26:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: So there is stuff like that that just didn't necessarily.
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: work as well for me, which is why I was surprised that it made it in over.
• 27:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was just an accident.
• 27:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: But obviously, I'm happy for Brazil, I'm happy for everyone involved in this film that it is getting its recognition.
• 27:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like, well, for me happens just, it's the opposite for me, because I interpret it, it.
• 27:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm so sorry.
• 27:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is not my first language.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: For me, it was just about, like, forgotten stories, you know, there's this recurring idea of history being incomplete.
• 27:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: of certain lives being kind of left out because they're inconvenient or maybe because they're uncomfortable.
• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the editing captured that very well.
• 27:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And even though it's not the most comfortable thing for us to watch the film that feels so much like putting puzzle pieces together,
• 28:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: the issue here that he it has to be remembered but he gets deliberately erased.
• 28:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: and who gets to be a part of official history, who gets pushed aside.
• 28:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that the editing captures that pretty well, even if it's not comfortable for us.
• 28:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: The audience.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: So we should say it was just an accident is based on situations that have happened in real life.
• 28:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: The secret of agent is based on real people, actual people.
• 28:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yes, and I know that it was just an accident is just well, it hits harder because this film, you know, he has being arrested, he has been banned from making films in prison and he keeps making them anyway, like for a long time he has worked in word because he had to, but he was filming his sound confinement, his own reality, and now that some restrictions have lifted for him,
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I think that it is it is absolute cinema like the meme
• 29:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I have to also give Kudos to the cast who, you know, for instance, the women were often filmed without wearing hijabs because that's with their characters would do, but that is illegal to appear in public or much less on film.
• 29:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: So the cast in front of the camera is taking a lot of risks to everyone involved in making this film.
• 29:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: They made an excellent film at great risk to themselves.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you have any other thoughts about these first two films?
• 29:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I was about to say, now that you mentioned the women, I want to point out the woman life freedom movement, which is something that I just, Oh my god, it's just very interesting for me that benahe insists that the story could take place anywhere.
• 30:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: and I see it because it could take place here in my country, it could take place in countries that are for me, like first world country, like it's taking place in the U.S.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Very universal.
• 30:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 30:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
• 30:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the emotional core of it was just an accident, feels very universal.
• 30:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: The idea of confronting people that run you in a personal way.
• 30:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have thought about that too, and that's something that represents geography, the way he connects it to the social changes.
• 30:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is very urgent.
• 30:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that that's what's better about it was just an accident, that it is the urgency without turning into a political statement.
• 30:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, I agree and it's there's something just the central question and it was just an accident is really something everyone is grappling with even if they're not in these extreme circumstances, which is I'll say how do I say this without being spoilery I guess the central question is just sort of how.
• 31:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the ending.
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god.
• 31:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I won't talk about it.
• 31:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: But the ending.
• 31:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's one of the best endings.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I won't say this year.
• 31:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: I will say this decade.
• 31:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that the ending is just perfect.
• 31:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, I was kind of mad at the ending at first, but it stuck with me.
• 31:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: And so I think it did what it went I'd to do.
• 31:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: exactly and I just I just I just want to end this discussion about it was just an accident with with Banahi because he's he's like my hero you know he's refusing to leave iron and he knows that there are risks and he knows what could happen after showing to film internationally and still he says like I can't leave any worlds this is the attachment that I have for my place
• 32:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 32:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just, it transcends what we see on screen.
• 32:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can feel it when I went and watching you was just an accident.
• 32:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 32:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that's why I would say almost it was just an accident could be a dark horse for this race.
• 32:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: But we'll say, well, we're going to take a quick break now when we get back, we're going to talk about the likely favorite to win.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Be right back.
• 32:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
• 32:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, so let's talk about the big Norwegian elephant in the room.
• 33:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: Sentimental value, or affections fairy, directed by Jo Kim Trier.
• 33:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is his second and third and fourth nomination after receiving an original screen plane nomination for the worst person in the world a few years ago.
• 33:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: submitting country again, Norway, but this was a co-production with France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and it is, in the film, they speak like, candy blend.
• 33:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: They, like, still in Scar's Guard is speaking Swedish.
• 33:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: Other characters are speaking Norwegian.
• 33:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: There's some Danish in there.
• 33:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: And of course, with L fannings character, there is English as well.
• 33:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: The plot is Sister's Nora, an Agnes reunite with her estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once renowned director who offers stage actress Nora, a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film.
• 33:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.
• 34:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: And we did talk about this in the best picture preview, where David called it Sinnamma, with the same meme.
• 34:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: And we will talk about it also in best film editing, directing, original screenplay, actress, catagories, supporting actor and twice supporting actress.
• 34:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: So definitely the most heavily nominated film in this category.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it did win, it didn't win the palm lure, which again went to, it was just an accident, but it did win the Grand Prix.
• 34:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, and it had a budget of 7.8 million and a box office of 22 million, which I think, yeah, it does make it definitely the biggest grosser in this category as well.
• 34:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: And YouTube can see it on video on demand in its two hours and 13 minutes long.
• 34:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: What are your feelings about sentimental value?
• 34:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: I completely loved it.
• 34:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I really liked it because of the family dynamics.
• 34:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't get into spoilers, but this isn't one of those movies where everything builds up to a big emotional or reconciliation.
• 35:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: and everyone suddenly understands each other like my Mexican soap opera is messier than that very very messier and honestly much more honest which I I I give thanks like I love it at the center of the story
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: You said it.
• 35:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: There are two sisters, Nora and Actonus, and what I loved it is that they grew up in the house that feels alive.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: That house feels like a character.
• 35:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I know that it does in other movies even sound of falling.
• 35:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: but in this movie particularly, I think that I think that it's very relatable, the idea of being able to express everything like through art, but not knowing how to do it in real life.
• 35:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I was just crying the whole time, watching Nora and trying to be like Agnes, because Agnes just, ah, I loved her character, but Nora, I just felt like her.
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it resonated with me.
• 36:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Nora was like, I want you to, I want, I want to hug you, I want to say that it's okay, Nora.
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: So Nora is the Renata Reigns, the character, the lead actress nominee, but I'll say I resonated most surprisingly with Agnes, the In-A-Ibstater Lilias, she's
• 36:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: one of the, I mean, I think she still has a shot in supporting actress category.
• 36:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's a tough category this year.
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: But she for me is the one who really stood out in this film.
• 36:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, I talked about it with David in the best picture preview, but she just, I'm not usually one who responds to the quiet characters because I am more like Nora.
• 36:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: more like the loud and neurotic type, but just her patient quiet strength and the way it glimmered through and her eyes just for me was the part of this movie that blew me away the most.
• 37:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Seconds of that I would say is a cinematography which I would have predicted in a less competitive
• 37:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Everything in this movie for me feels like a project of love, a project of perfection.
• 37:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like you can tell that the Joaquin career is a very, very artistic person.
• 37:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's very into his art and he knows what to convey and when to do it.
• 37:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I wanted to tell you that, yes, Agnes is, oh my god, it's a very, very good character because for me, it was just two hours long of crying and feeling like I had to pause it because it was very personal for me and I mean, Agnes is the kind of person who becomes the emotional backbone of a family, but at the cost of herself.
• 38:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 38:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 38:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 38:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, who?
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, and as you said, it also exceptional production design, particularly that house in the way, because it covers, it's focused on a particular moment, but it includes also the entire history of family.
• 38:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: So the house covers a number of different years in the way it shifts and evolves over the years to, yeah, it's just a beautiful film.
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: it's a beautiful film.
• 38:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I can see it's a very beautiful film.
• 38:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it's a film about filmmaking, which obviously the Academy loves.
• 38:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it is a very more mature step in Joaquin Trier's work.
• 38:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not the biggest fan of the world's person in the world and I know that it has a lot of fans.
• 38:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it was just about figuring yourself out as a young adult.
• 39:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And this one feels more like looking back and trying to understand where you come from, like whether you can never fully make peace with it.
• 39:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's just what makes me love sentimental value.
• 39:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just my favorite movie from this five nominees.
• 39:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, okay.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's fair.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's fair.
• 39:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you have any other thoughts on that one before
• 39:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that we shouldn't leave out Rachel because Elfany has been doing some amazing stuff lately.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's true.
• 39:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, she's been doing amazing stuff across the board.
• 39:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: I think I mean, here she gave a fantastic performance and sentimental value and she got nominated for it and I'm not mad about it, you know.
• 39:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I think for some reason, I think maybe it's because her role of her character was
• 39:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to spoil things, but her role is to be the odd person out because she's the American in the Scandinavian world and she feels that as a character and naturally cast the attention back to her, the Scandinavian actors.
• 40:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 40:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I found the character of Rachel.
• 40:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's really interesting.
• 40:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's just a big movie star.
• 40:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And she seems to have everything, but she's lost.
• 40:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's looking for something we're meaningful.
• 40:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And without realizing it, she ends up stepping into this very intimate family situation through the film.
• 40:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: And do you think that Stella Skarskard deserves to win the supporting actor?
• 40:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: He will definitely win, I don't know if he deserves it, cause I think that this is two or the fourth movie for women.
• 40:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just don't see Stalin's scar skirt being a winner.
• 40:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm, I don't buy it.
• 41:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's a very good actor.
• 41:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Don't come here wrong because he's a very much respect him.
• 41:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think that it's going to be one of those awards that are given for trajectory, for what they have done in the past.
• 41:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right, because he didn't get recognized for Andor, or something like that.
• 41:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 41:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean it's just both of the supporting acting categories are again this year so competitive so it's hard to say like he will definitely win I predicted it months ago, he would be the winner and then I sort of backed off it and now I'm kind of back on it again But you know, there are still there's still so many other like Jacob alordi really gave one of the best creature performances of Frankenstein we've ever had so Yeah, it's tough to say
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's tough to say, but I'm still saying, if I were to bet on it, I think that it would be, I would bet he would get, he would win.
• 41:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Selen's got a good disservice to win, even though I'm not the biggest fan of his character.
• 42:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I know, I mean, I'm just mixing up things because this is just my impression of him.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: So if his character was dislikable, I think that he just did an amazing work.
• 42:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, all right.
• 42:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Any final thoughts in sentimental value?
• 42:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I would like to say a lot more, but it would be a spoiler.
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: I know, everyone just watch sentimental value.
• 42:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's one of the best picture nominees, and it's widely agreed to be one of the best films of the year.
• 42:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: So check it out.
• 42:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Again, it's on video on the man.
• 42:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: Moving on to one that's, you,
• 42:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: Easy to watch right now, but we'll likely be on video on demand in March.
• 42:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: That is Serat.
• 42:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: The Spanish entry is an hour and 55 minutes long directed by Oliver Lach's first nomination again, submitted by Spain, but a co-production with France and the languages spoken are Spanish, French, English, and some Arabic because it takes place in Morocco.
• 43:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: a man and his son arrived at a rave lost in the mountains of Morocco, they are looking for Marina, their daughter and sister, who disappeared months ago at another rave.
• 43:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Driven by fate, they decide to follow a group of ravers in search of one last party and hopes that Marina will be there.
• 43:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: And this, this one, uh, got two nominations, so we will also talk about it in sound.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was thought to be a potential best picture contender, um, and it was also shortlisted for cinematography and score, which I think are deserved.
• 43:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, I think that as I said, I think there's limited places for for international films in the best picture line up, and this is definitely in forced place.
• 43:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I wasn't surprised not to see it there.
• 43:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: What about you?
• 44:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you think it might be a best picture nominee?
• 44:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh god, I, I didn't really liked Syra.
• 44:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it was.
• 44:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I respect what it was trying to do, but I, I didn't fully connect with it.
• 44:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was hoping for another miracle.
• 44:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know that the first miracle was having the voice of Henry Jav, even though it was in detriment of no other choice, but I wished it would be Gokuho, because you know that I loved it.
• 44:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I told you before that I loved that movie, so I was hoping for Gokuho to get an nomination.
• 44:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, Serat, I see why people like it, but I called it in my, in my letterbox review, I called it the Mad Max Prequel.
• 44:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: I didn't know I didn't want.
• 44:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I think what the reason why mean some other people have kind of a visceral response to it is it plays a bit of a dirty trick.
• 45:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I'm gonna be careful about spoilers here, but I will say the tone shifts halfway through and it becomes much more nihilistic.
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: So the title comes from Arabic.
• 45:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: As Sarat is according to Islam, the bridge of her which every person must pass on the day of resurrection in order to enter paradise.
• 45:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I don't feel like the film ultimately delivered on the promise of that title.
• 45:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: It just ended up feeling like there was some
• 45:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: cool scenes that I definitely remember more clearly than a lot of other films.
• 45:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: It is one that sticks in the mind.
• 45:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I'm, I walked away being like, what, what, what did this say?
• 45:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: Why is this one of the most important films of the year?
• 45:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: You know?
• 45:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
• 45:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, exactly.
• 45:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that, I
• 46:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: You can tell that the director is deeply invested in exploring questions, about change, survival, and those moments when life forces you to confront who you really are.
• 46:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate that.
• 46:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: But at the same time I find myself admiring it, admiring it more than actually feeling moved by and the themes for me are compelling on paper, but the way they're presented are few
• 46:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Hmm.
• 46:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 46:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: No, I see what you mean.
• 46:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: It feels.
• 46:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: It starts to feel at first.
• 46:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: It feels to diffuse.
• 46:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then it starts, oh, like, oh, I'm starting to like where this is going.
• 46:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then suddenly it shifts gears.
• 46:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it feels like doing things for shock value almost.
• 46:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 46:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 46:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Personally, the experience remained more intellectual than the emotional, I understood what the film wanted to explore, confront immortality, stripping away ego, finding light, connection, but I never feel it felt carried by it, even if it's more like tender or human moments, I felt a certain distance that kept me from truly entering the core, the emotional core of it.
• 47:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I will say the glissian director is a prior candarling so it was in matter of time before I think he finally broke into the Oscars in this category and the film has been well liked it had a budget of 6.5 million euros and a box office of 10.4 million dollars.
• 47:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, yeah, as I said, you can watch it on video on the man probably in March, it is, I think it's still in theaters and a lot of places right now.
• 47:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I would say it's worth it if like what you're looking for is a vibe with a cool score.
• 47:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: I did like the score and wouldn't have been mad if that had been nominated.
• 48:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
• 48:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, the score was excellent.
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: Nope.
• 48:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 48:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: The let's move on to the fifth and final nominee, the voice of Hindu Rajab or shout Hindu Rajab directed by Kowthor Benhania who's this is her third nomination after the man who sold his skin in 2020 and in the documentary category, four daughters in 2023.
• 48:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I'll say
• 48:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: four daughters was my favorite documentary of that year by a long shot.
• 48:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: This was submitted by her country Tunisia.
• 48:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, me too.
• 48:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 48:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 48:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'll talk about I'm going to compare this a bit with four daughters because well, we'll talk.
• 48:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: We'll get to it.
• 48:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: But it's submitted by Tunisia co-production with France and the language is Arabic.
• 48:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: It is based on the true events and emergency calls
• 48:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: eight group.
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: On January 29th, 2024, Red Crescent Volunteers receive an emergency call, a five-year-old girl.
• 49:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: I thought she was six.
• 49:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: Anyway, a young girl is trapped in a car, under fire, and Gaza, pleading for rescue.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
• 49:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: Her name was Hinde Rajam.
• 49:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: And this is the only nomination that the film got, and it was kind of, it's not a surprise that it got in here, but as you said, it did display another movie that we're going to talk about in a little bit, no other choice.
• 49:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's, I mean, I'll say, this is one, it's a true story, and it's actually one of three films about this little girl, Hinderajab, that were released this year.
• 49:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: The other two were short films.
• 49:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: I've seen the Dutch short film closure eyes-hind, that one, the Golden Calf, which is the highest prize at the Dutch film awards this year.
• 50:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: And there was also a Jordanian short film called Hind under siege.
• 50:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: I haven't seen that one, but it looks from the poster, like both of those are from the perspective of actually Hind in the car in Gaza, whereas this film is, you don't see that perspective at all, but they use the real recordings from
• 50:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: from the actual call that happened, and then they have actors reenacting what the, you know, volunteers at the red crescent were saying and doing and going through as they try to negotiate with the Israeli army and et cetera, et cetera, to get rescuers into help her.
• 50:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I said it's hard to, I guess we won't talk about the end, but I'll just say it's, it's,
• 50:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: it's definitely the most difficult watch of this bunch by long shot and this is after we talked about the nihilism of sort of it's also it's also because it's very real I think because of this even before the film premiered
• 51:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: a whole slew of celebrities including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuaron, Jonathan Blaser, D.D.
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Gardner, and Jeremy Feiner, they all got on board as executive producers, just because people feel so passionately about getting this story out there.
• 51:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, what did you think though of it as a film?
• 51:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: How do you feel about the voice of Henry Job in this category?
• 51:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, first of all, I love what Gatherb and Hanyas being doing since I watched the Man who sold his skin.
• 51:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: I remember that I loved the social commentary in that film and she's always been really good talking about borders, identity, art, exploitation and such a smart, layered way.
• 52:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And every film that I watched from her,
• 52:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: has stayed with me long after I watched it.
• 52:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And even more personally, I actually became friends with Jajama Haini, the protagonist of the man who sold his skin.
• 52:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we've been chatting on Instagram and through him, I have learned so much about Calthurbanhania as a director, as a person,
• 52:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've heard about her process or sensitivity towards her subjects and the way hips she approaches storytelling and that's why I think that the voice of Invertev is very personal.
• 52:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's how personal the film feels, where you can tell that this isn't just another project for her.
• 52:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's something that generally shook her and changed the direction of her life.
• 52:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: She was preparing another film, I think, and she stopped everything stopped.
• 53:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: That kind of, you know, of call artistic pivot doesn't happen unless it hits you very, very deeply because you the whole film grew out of a real audio you've said it and just imagining it just imagine and her listening to 70 minutes of a child begging for help.
• 53:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just understand why she felt she couldn't move on and had to make this all.
• 53:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's very powerful her choice to keep the violence of screen.
• 53:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is a very, very full of violence time to live in.
• 53:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we're constantly bombarded with graphic images and that decision feels radical.
• 53:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Instead of showing everything, she focuses on the weighting, the fear, the silence that can be even more devastating.
• 53:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: You can imagine what you imagine is far worse than anything
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: be shown directly.
• 54:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a very good movie even though I wouldn't like to watch it again.
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: right yeah it is it is an endurance test although it is only an hour and 29 minutes long and you can watch it yourself from March 10th it'll be on video on the man so it's a short run time but it's certainly you feel it because it's it's playing out in real time with these people who are just trying to do everything and feeling helpless trying to help this girl
• 54:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, it's interesting to contrast with her, you know, I said that the documentary for daughters was my favorite of the 2023 lineup and this is a very different type of film because she does.
• 54:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 54:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: So this one is in the narrative category and that one is in the documentary category, but you know, as we talked about the use of real recordings in this and such, she likes to blur the lines between the two.
• 54:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, so it's sort of a higher, high-ridden, documentary drama, narrative feature, you know, uh, I like, by the way, they include some some video recordings at the end and a really cool way in this one, but in four daughters, it was, I think it also,
• 55:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: four daughters was one that really brought together like a bunch of different settings and setups and and it was also a feat of editing amongst other things and reenactments in very fresh ways that sort of picked at the scabs that they were studying.
• 55:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then there was kind of if you're not Tunisian and didn't know who these people were to begin with as I'm not.
• 55:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: There was a surprise at the end there, whereas here we won't talk about the end, but I don't think it's going to be a surprise for most people.
• 55:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it's in one setting, and as I said, it plays in just real time, so not, you know, there's cutting in terms of filmmaking, but it's not really a feat of editing in the same way.
• 56:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's a very different kind of film.
• 56:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Do you have the same feeling?
• 56:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I think absolutely, I think that it's just instead of a traditional documentary that has built footage, interviews, it recreates missing daughters and just that feels so bold because it's just not telling a story, it's showing memory, being reconstructed in real time and I think that most documentaries don't do that very often.
• 56:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: how trauma gets distorted, relieved, narrated, and I don't know, it turns a story that it's very political into an intimate tragedy, a family tragedy, because on paper it's just about two girls from Tunisia who left to join ISIS, but you don't do that, you don't know about that
• 57:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: You are just hearing about what kind of family dynamics led to that rupture or how does the parenting shape identity.
• 57:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a very good documentary.
• 57:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that Galther Binhani is a genius if I may say so.
• 57:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's a very intelligent filmmaker.
• 57:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: He knows how to convey emotions even though
• 57:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's harder not to, it's hard not to convey an emotion from this, but she knows what to do and when to do it.
• 57:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: When, how do you think that the style and structure of Hinderraajab compares?
• 57:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that the voice of him, Dr.
• 57:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've, doesn't seem interested in spectacle.
• 57:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's what it makes.
• 57:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: What's what made for daughters stood up for me as that it was the thing that it's not emotional manipulation.
• 58:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: it's more focused, is intimate, and it's grief, it's a single location, built around a voice around the testimony, around absence, and that's what makes me feel that four daughters,
• 58:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Related, they were V-sisters.
• 58:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: They would be sisters.
• 58:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it takes a lot of confidence as a filmmaker trusting that emotional weight of the story is enough without needing to show everything Hmm, it feels like the kind of film that will be hard to watch, but it will be impossible to ignore I think that that would be like my line for this movie
• 58:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Hmm, yeah, I'll say it is, in addition to the, it's really film we mentioned there, which was not shortlisted.
• 58:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: There are were three shortlisted films about Palestine this year.
• 59:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is the only one that got nominated obviously, but the others were from Tunisia, Palestine, and Jordan, and we'll talk about those a little bit more in a second, but it's interesting that you can line them up to sort of the three of them come
• 59:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: different time periods sort of tracing the history of events there, and with him Rajab being obviously the most recent.
• 59:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: So obviously this is something that's, you know, this is one of the major topics that this is the topic that won the documentary category that last year, and there is
• 59:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: some representation of that in boxes here, but not really as a lot of other more interesting for instance, Russian Ukraine and documentary this year, but so we really felt those questions being grappled with in the international film category instead this year.
• 59:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, once you truly listen to this story of him, you can really pretend that you didn't hear it.
• 1:00:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: So this one, um, it did not make a big impact at the box office.
• 1:00:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: We know the budget.
• 1:00:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: We don't know the budget.
• 1:00:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: We know the box office was only five million, which is it's, you know, for a, I can't imagine how little this cost make is there's no.
• 1:00:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Special effects, there's like computer graphics about like, oh, the map.
• 1:00:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: How do we get the ambulance there?
• 1:00:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: But there's it's one location as we keep saying very limited cast.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I can't imagine a cost much to make.
• 1:00:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it's done quite well for itself.
• 1:00:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I would say the impact is more felt.
• 1:00:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: in by the word of mouth and emotionally.
• 1:00:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and it did get the grand jury prize there in six other prizes and it set the record for the longest applause at a film festival with a standing ovation of nearly 24 minutes.
• 1:01:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: I deserved it.
• 1:01:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: for my own sake, I think, uh, no, all right.
• 1:01:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, we'll just, we're going to take a quick break here.
• 1:01:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: When we come back, we're going to talk about our predictions and personal preferences and which films we think missed, uh, which films we would have also liked or seen up here.
• 1:01:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: All right, just a second.
• 1:01:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, and we are back.
• 1:01:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: And so, Ector, what is your, you said that your pick to win would be sentimental value?
• 1:01:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: Is that your prediction as well?
• 1:01:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it is my prediction.
• 1:01:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:01:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's definitely my prediction.
• 1:02:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: My pick, I might go with it.
• 1:02:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was just an accident of these five, but sentimental value is right next to that.
• 1:02:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, yeah, I'm happy about it either way.
• 1:02:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: My pick would be sentimental values still because I know that it makes me sound like an awful person because, well, sentimental values just about the art and its fiction, but I know, I know that, I know that, but I just loved it.
• 1:02:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just loved every second that I spent watching it from, from start to finish.
• 1:02:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was just, ah, I loved it.
• 1:02:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's about family dynamics, which is something that's really universal.
• 1:02:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, it does touch on heavy stuff for sure, even if it's not quite as heavy on the surface as the others, which may be not a bad thing.
• 1:02:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, I'll say the BAFTAs nominated the exact same five films.
• 1:02:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, boring.
• 1:03:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: But because it's different voting bodies, um, it might be different outcomes as to who wins.
• 1:03:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Although I don't think it will be.
• 1:03:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: But it could be it could be.
• 1:03:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: And as we've been kind of referring to, the one that missed that people are most upset about is no other choice, Park Chan Wooks new film from South Korea was shortlisted, but people were predicting neon, a distributor has become known for dominating this category and people were wondering if this year it might get all five films, and it didn't, because in Rajap got instead of no other choice,
• 1:03:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm upset about no other choice, missing.
• 1:03:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: I've mentioned it once or five times or 30.
• 1:03:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's definitely one of my favorites of the year.
• 1:03:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's an absurdist, lightly horror comedy but it's also just Park Chan Wolken.
• 1:04:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: General has some of the most inventive filmmaking and it does, it is about a serious subject.
• 1:04:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's about,
• 1:04:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: it's about the desperation that humans who feel like they're being replaced by technology, what they are driven to, you know, to survive in a capitalist society when their jobs are given to machines, basically.
• 1:04:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: I can say that.
• 1:04:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: Are you, I know with their choice fan, are you a part 10
• 1:04:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just knew that they were gonna do this to him.
• 1:04:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I guess.
• 1:04:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is just like a personal beef against him.
• 1:04:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if that's the case with the academy, but... You explain yourselves.
• 1:04:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Explain how they did not get into.
• 1:04:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, people say like, okay, I said it myself, that Hindra job got in instead of no other choice, but I think honestly, Serrat got in instead of no other choice.
• 1:05:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: I think I would have put no other choice there.
• 1:05:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:05:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, no other choice might be Park Chang-Wook at his most deceptively human human and perhaps his most terrifying precisely because of that restraint.
• 1:05:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it presents itself a sub-black comedy, as you said it.
• 1:05:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it's slowly revealed something very more unsettling.
• 1:05:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a portrait of modern survival.
• 1:05:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it was, it was Bargain Wooks here and again, they did ham dirty.
• 1:05:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and if anyone's not familiar with the name of this director, we keep saying he's best known for old boy, which is actually the one film of his I hate because of sexual assault and animal abuse stuff.
• 1:06:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: You know, decision to leave, I called modern Korean hitchcock filmmaking and this like another choice I would love to have seen it nominated for cinematography just for its sheer inventiveness.
• 1:06:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: it's a gorgeous film.
• 1:06:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: So definitely check out no other choice anyway.
• 1:06:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'll say the other shortlisted films were bailing from Argentina about based on a real case revolving around abortion.
• 1:06:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: a sound of falling from Germany, tracing generations of especially the women and a family on one farmstead, homebound from India about two best friends who join the police to escape discrimination and poverty.
• 1:06:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: The president's cake from Iraq, of a set during Saddam Hussein's time about when he forced everyone to bake him a birthday cake and poor families couldn't afford it because of the sanctions and such, but it is actually kind of a comedy caper, but a very
• 1:07:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: definitely with the sad tinge, we'll say.
• 1:07:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: We'll come back to definitely Japan's Kokoho, which you mentioned already, which is set in the Kabuki world.
• 1:07:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: There are the two other Palestinian set movies.
• 1:07:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'll say Palestine 36 is the one at the beginning of the timeline, set in 1936, and that was submitted by Palestine Jordan submitted all that's left of you,
• 1:07:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: And Switzerland's late shift, which is about a nurse on a late shift, kind of following a very stressful late shift, I'll say, it really gives a lot of empathy for nursing staff.
• 1:07:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then one of my favorite films of the year left-handed girl from Taiwan, which you can watch on Netflix.
• 1:07:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: And that is...
• 1:07:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's from one of Shawn Baker's primary collaborators, and he was a producer on this film, and it's about a mother and two daughters in Taipei who are also just trying to get by and capers in Sue.
• 1:08:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Which of these would you like to shout out?
• 1:08:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'd like to shout out.
• 1:08:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
• 1:08:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Press it and speak.
• 1:08:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was very hard to watch, but it was a very light-hearted comedy at times.
• 1:08:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:08:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: It stayed with me in a way that I didn't expect that movie on a paper, it was very simple.
• 1:08:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't even attracted to the whole synopsis, even though when you're inside the film, it stops feeling simple very quickly.
• 1:08:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: The small task becomes a journey.
• 1:08:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: through a place where survival is very complicated.
• 1:08:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's already complicated, and what I appreciated more about it is that it feels like it's not trying to lecture you about politics.
• 1:09:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's setting is obviously political, but it focuses on children.
• 1:09:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: On Lamiya as a child, the stubbornness, the imagination,
• 1:09:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: the way she moves through the world, her friend, and even her rooster, which I was midway, midway through the movie, I was crying about that damn rooster.
• 1:09:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: I know, I don't stress me out about this rooster.
• 1:09:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was very tender, I would say.
• 1:09:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'll say, so we are both the members of the Academy of Death Racers, and so there are different branches in the Academy of Death Racers for the Death the Awards, and I'm in the Animal Branch, and we're in the nomination process here.
• 1:09:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: And there's another movie that came out this year called Hen, which is also about a chicken, obviously, and I'm rooting for that, but nobody's seen it, so it's not going to win, so I am all
• 1:10:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: that rooster I was like my eyes were locked on that bird that entire time like anytime she's separated from him like where's Cindy?
• 1:10:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Where's the bird?
• 1:10:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Where's the bird?
• 1:10:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
• 1:10:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I was I wasn't really buying it.
• 1:10:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I thought that it was another Rooster and they had swapped it.
• 1:10:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, is it really yours?
• 1:10:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really yours.
• 1:10:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Check it.
• 1:10:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Just check it girl.
• 1:10:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: She was specific though.
• 1:10:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: She was specific.
• 1:10:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I guess it's a minor spoiler at some point she gets separate Rooster, but she was specific about like that it had like a black spot on the beak and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
• 1:10:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, it's, it's, yeah, you can tell that she'd really love to her roots.
• 1:10:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's a bittersweet film, for sure.
• 1:10:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, that was definitely one of my favorites.
• 1:10:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: I also, I did, you know, I had mixed feelings coming up sound of falling, but I think, well, I don't, and it's not even mixed feelings.
• 1:11:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's just, it's like last year's The Girl with The Needle where I was like, I really liked that film, but it was kind of trauma to get through, you know?
• 1:11:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: And sound of falling is like I said it covers like it's that's when from Germany it covers like four generations of women who and all of the awful abuses that they go through in their depression and the ways that they deal with things and
• 1:11:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: But it's absolutely stunningly gorgeous and surreal and sort of, yeah, just absolutely and transcending film viewing experience, but a man is at a bummer also.
• 1:11:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you, did you like it?
• 1:11:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, because it feels like a feels less like a narrative, you follow, and more like a mood you enter.
• 1:12:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: It feels, I don't know, it's one of those films that is trying to tell story, but in the visual sense.
• 1:12:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it feels more like it's trying to capture a place almost like sentimental value, but not quite as perfectly as sentimental value.
• 1:12:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 1:12:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: It feels like memory itself had a physical,
• 1:12:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: location.
• 1:12:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's very simple for girls across different decades, spend a part of the youth on the same farm, and is the approach is what I like, how organic the whole project sounds.
• 1:12:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: that idea carries through everything.
• 1:12:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: It seems like almost obsessed with how memory works, how places hold up to things even when people don't talk about them.
• 1:12:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: We men's experiences.
• 1:12:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's this sense that so much of what these characters live through was never recorded, never written down.
• 1:13:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it only exists that fragment silences or traces, you know?
• 1:13:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:13:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it's really, it stitches together.
• 1:13:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: They stories out of order.
• 1:13:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it's sort of, if you, it's a film you shouldn't fight against when you want.
• 1:13:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: Like, don't try to figure everything out.
• 1:13:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: And the first viewing the pieces will eventually fall into place.
• 1:13:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: But at first, you're not going to know how people are related.
• 1:13:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it's just about like writing through the vibes.
• 1:13:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that was one that a lot of people thought had a good chance at an nomination.
• 1:13:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: I see why, but I'm also not sad that one didn't get nominated.
• 1:13:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: I am more sad about, as I said, left-handed girl.
• 1:13:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you like that one?
• 1:13:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I, I really liked it.
• 1:13:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I did.
• 1:13:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: I watched it with my family.
• 1:13:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: on Netflix and it was a very strange thing to do.
• 1:13:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: I will never do it again because I think that I missed a lot of that movie just because I chose to watch it with them.
• 1:14:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think that it's a very very personal story about
• 1:14:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: that said that he was just the same as other shun bakers stories and he got me so mad.
• 1:14:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, well, it is, but it isn't.
• 1:14:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just that it makes you feel that way, but it's just so special.
• 1:14:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: What are your feelings about this?
• 1:14:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because I don't want to mess up.
• 1:14:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: Now, I mean, it's one of my top films of the year, and I think, you know, I would say it's similar to Sean Baker's stories in a positive way, Sean Baker being the man behind Anora, the big winner last year.
• 1:14:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it has that same sort of sensitivity and intimacy.
• 1:14:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: for the characters, but this is from a, you know, a Taiwanese woman, and it is a story Sean Baker, a white American man, couldn't tell, but it is very much a Taiwanese woman story, and he just helped her to tell it in the same way she's been helping him to tell his stories for so long.
• 1:15:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I just, the characters, it's kind of one of like this year has been insane for incredible child performances and this has one of the most incredible child performances, the titular left-handed girl and it's just so like there's ups and downs and there's it's it is like a Sean Baker movie in the way that there's suddenly like a wild twist and then but what?
• 1:15:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: but it still never feels outside or ridiculous, it still feels real, um, and yeah, I just, I, I really loved it.
• 1:15:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: I think it's so charming.
• 1:15:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: So charming.
• 1:15:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it is.
• 1:15:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it's very fascinated by otherness by being out of sync with once environment, with one's body, with social expectation, and I don't know.
• 1:16:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: I liked it a lot, even though I have to, I have to watch it again.
• 1:16:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:16:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I knew it wasn't going to get nominated, but I really wish it would.
• 1:16:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: But if that sounds good to any of you, it is on Netflix.
• 1:16:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: So you can watch that one.
• 1:16:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: But let's shift to you said that you really loved Cocujo, the nomination, or sorry, the submission from Japan, which was shortlisted.
• 1:16:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: And we did talk about it also in the Haran Makeup category.
• 1:16:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: Why do
• 1:16:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my God, what really put me in is that this isn't just a film about art or performance.
• 1:16:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's about inheritance and not just family inheritance but artistic lineage, who gets to carry a tradition, who belongs, who doesn't.
• 1:16:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that Kiku will come from this background.
• 1:17:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: and he enters the world that it's all about, he's disciplined, he comes from Yakuza background we should say.
• 1:17:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yes, yes, I'm sorry.
• 1:17:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he's constantly negotiating those two identities.
• 1:17:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's this quiet tension.
• 1:17:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Is he chosen by destiny or is he always going to be an outsider trying to earn his place?
• 1:17:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I loved how much care you can feel behind the film.
• 1:17:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Director Lee Sang-il has been thinking about 10th story about Kabuki and Anagata for like 15 years.
• 1:17:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And well, for those who do not know the idea of Anagata, male actors performing female roles in this very stylized, almost other worldly way.
• 1:17:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he treats it with so much respect, but also very, his very curious, he's still trying to understand what makes it so magnetic.
• 1:18:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that I appreciated that the actors actually perform the Kabukid themselves, no doubles, the commitment, it's authentic.
• 1:18:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: You feel the years of training this character's go through the discipline, the exhaustion, the obsession, the perfection, and I think that it makes the performance feel earned.
• 1:18:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: By the end, I think that it's not a typical biographical rice-to-fane story.
• 1:18:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's more like a meditation.
• 1:18:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: What it means to dedicate your entire life to an art form.
• 1:18:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: What's your game and what's your loose?
• 1:18:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I learned so much about Kabuki through that film and it is three hours long, but I didn't feel the length for that one.
• 1:18:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: I was quite engrossed, although I mean, I've seen people say they found it slow-paced and I get that and I've spoken to people who have, it's based on a novel and people have read the novel.
• 1:19:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: Like, I had questions about some of the Yakuza stuff and they're like, yeah, they go into that more in the novels.
• 1:19:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Like, yeah,
• 1:19:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: the director decided where to make cuts, and it really, yes, it's perfect for a long conversation.
• 1:19:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it is, yeah, it's really the story, they decide to focus on the central story between this
• 1:19:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: foster brother, brother, in Kabuki arms, so to speak, and there are sort of frenemyship through decades of their lives, so.
• 1:19:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, yeah, so that was one that it was sort of a late entry into people's attention.
• 1:19:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: And so I think it's good that it had a fantastic makeup presentation and snuck in there.
• 1:19:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, but maybe if it, it's the highest-grossing live-action film in Japan now, but maybe if it had gotten more international attention before that, it could have snuck into the category overall.
• 1:20:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you have any other thoughts about the long-listed films or shortlisted films, sorry?
• 1:20:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm, I think that I have a comment about two more films that really made me think a lot about the first one is homebound.
• 1:20:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that homebound is a movie that most people just don't.
• 1:20:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: They underestimate it.
• 1:20:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: because it feels like a very mid-film.
• 1:20:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think that it's next up on you emotionally, or I don't know it, that I watched it with my family too, and they were crying all over the face.
• 1:20:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was too at the one point.
• 1:20:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And on the surface, I think that it follows childhood friends, but even though it sounds straightforward,
• 1:21:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: The debris goes, the more it becomes about friendship, what happens when this thing that's supposed to save you is also the thing that slowly pulls you apart, and what I find really compelling is that the director wasn't really interested in melodrama for the sake of it.
• 1:21:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: is someone who sees filmmaking as an ethical act.
• 1:21:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I read about everything that he was telling, during interviews, the way he talks about his process.
• 1:21:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you can feel that the same philosophy about being inclusive, collaborative, respectful, carries into the film.
• 1:21:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: It feels very human-centered and is very attentive to the emotionally reality of the characters, not just plot mechanics.
• 1:21:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I liked about Humbout.
• 1:21:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, it's not a perfect movie, but that's what I love the most about it.
• 1:21:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that was India's submission again, and that one I would say was the one people were most surprised to see on the shortlist.
• 1:22:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: But then there have been a lot of reactions like yours who say, like, oh, but actually since I was prodded to watch it, I do connect with it, and that is one of the easiest ones to watch because it's on Netflix.
• 1:22:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 1:22:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's because even though I won't get into spoilers, I think that for the most of it, it's a very joyful thing to watch with the other film that you wanted to comment on.
• 1:22:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I wanted to comment on all that's left of you because it absolutely destroyed me.
• 1:22:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: It sounds like the kind of film that understands history, but not as something that's distant, as something that lives inside the families.
• 1:22:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: That one was the last that I watched with my family, and they were very, very mad, mad, away, if they will.
• 1:23:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I won't say this boy or you, you know.
• 1:23:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: what they were mad about.
• 1:23:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And at the center is a single moment.
• 1:23:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a Palestinian teenager caught in a protest, protest in the West Bank and devilins that follow us.
• 1:23:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: But instead of staying only in that moment, the film moves outward and backward.
• 1:23:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: As his mother starts recounting everything that led them there.
• 1:23:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: If I jump back to his grandfather here,
• 1:23:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it becomes less about one incident and more about the long chain of events, choices, wounds that make it almost inevitable.
• 1:23:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, and it does, I mean, so it does this whole generational thing and that's almost like,
• 1:23:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: confined to just more than the first half of the film, and then it becomes something unexpected in the second half where that explains.
• 1:23:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: At first, I thought the title was about Palestine, and I suppose it is to a certain extent, but then it becomes also more personal at the end, too, and about personal questions of morality in the midst of this conflict and what's right for this family.
• 1:24:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, I think that what I find most compelling is that, well, I loved that it was directed by a woman because that's something that most people don't really see, that the academy is starting to shift and I know that there's a lot of stories that can be told from the women's perspective.
• 1:24:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: that we are missing on.
• 1:24:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that this is very compelling because the director's intention was to create empathy rather than just explain the conflict or well she talks about recognition as the starting point for healing and I think that
• 1:24:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: cinema becomes a way of making that recognition possible, to like bringing audiences into the intimate emotional space that otherwise we would never enter.
• 1:25:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:25:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I'll say that from the production standpoint, the film was all set to begin filming.
• 1:25:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was going to film in Palestine in the West Bank.
• 1:25:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: And they were all set up to film around October 7th.
• 1:25:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then when things started to go down, and it's like, you can't do this here now.
• 1:25:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: You got to get out.
• 1:25:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: So they went and filmed Jordan and said, OK, you can film here.
• 1:25:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: And that's why Jordan ended up meeting this film.
• 1:25:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: And again, I'm Palestine.
• 1:25:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: pretty cool companion piece in a sort of way.
• 1:25:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, I know a lot of people really connected with all that's left of you.
• 1:25:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: I've seen a lot of love heaped on that one.
• 1:25:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: This is a good spot to take one last break and when we get back we're going to talk about some of this season's other recognized international films and more of our own personal favorites.
• 1:26:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Be our back.
• 1:26:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: So as I said, the theft and nominations were again the exact same five as the Oscar nominations, but the rest of the long list is there was an Italian film, La Grazia about a fictional, Italian politician, a president in his last days in office, a grappling with the question of signing a bill over youth and Asia and pardoning two people.
• 1:26:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: Left-hand a girl was also on that list, no other choice was on that list, but also to others that we haven't really mentioned.
• 1:26:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: Nouvelle Vague, which is a French and English language film, was not eligible for the International Oscars.
• 1:26:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's directed by Richard Linklader, so people thought maybe France would submit it, but no, they ended up going with, it was just an accident instead.
• 1:27:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, and that is about the Jean-Lucardard film breathless about the making there of and I'd say I don't love breathless, but I like Nouvelle Vogue more and I think it comes down to, um, what's her face is portrayal of Jean-Sieberg Zoe doaches portrayal like she just really is captivates us to screen and is charming.
• 1:27:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: And then the last one in this category in the long list for the BAFTAs was rental family in Japanese and English, again, not the Japanese submissions and not eligible for the Oscars, but David and I talked about in a previous episode, charming, Brendan Fraser, yes, set piece, did you have any thoughts about any of those you wanted to throw out?
• 1:27:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I still have to watch rental family because they haven't, I haven't really had the time.
• 1:28:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I did watch Newville back and for me, it failed like, um, link later, turning, uh, his camera towards cinema itself.
• 1:28:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:28:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it was, it was, uh, the same curiosity.
• 1:28:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: He usually researched for memory, conversation, time.
• 1:28:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that what's fascinating about that movie is that it effort effort that's the channel's spirit of the French New Wave without ever slipping into imitation.
• 1:28:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 1:28:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because it would be very easy to just
• 1:28:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: imitate.
• 1:28:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Instead of recreating good art or truffle, he captures what made the movement electric in the first place.
• 1:28:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Spontaneous cinema, intellectual, messy, alive.
• 1:28:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I liked about the style.
• 1:28:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:28:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it does, it channels the French New Haven also explains it.
• 1:29:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: And for me, like I just, like I said, I don't love the film breathless that it's about, but this sort of explains to me why breathless is the way it is for better or worse.
• 1:29:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:29:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:29:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's better or worse.
• 1:29:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
• 1:29:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: And explain, explorers, you know, who Jean-Luc Gerdart was as like a real character in person.
• 1:29:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: He was a trip.
• 1:29:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: And, yeah, and I would have, if it were up to me, I would have Zoe Deutsch, I love her mom, by the way.
• 1:29:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I would have her in the supporting actress category.
• 1:29:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: If it were up to me, I thought that she really just stole that movie.
• 1:29:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that we should expand the category so a little bit.
• 1:29:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, ten international films, please.
• 1:29:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 1:29:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, I'll say the, I did do a separate Indies, uh, Indy spirits episode, but just a shout out again, the international nominees there were all that's left of you, um, and the secret agent and seroths, which you've already talked about, but too that we haven't, are, on becoming a guinea fowl and a poet.
• 1:30:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, starting with, on becoming a guinea fowl, again, it was not,
• 1:30:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: selected from any of the countries to be submitted.
• 1:30:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it was not eligible for the Oscars, but it's a co-production of Zambia, the UK, and Ireland.
• 1:30:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: I really like the filmmaker Ragnano Neoni.
• 1:30:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: She's a Zambian Welsh filmmaker.
• 1:30:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: I her last film was, I'm not a witch, and I thought that was really captivating.
• 1:30:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: This one is about
• 1:30:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's about a family in Zambia who a member dies, the uncle of the main character dies, and it's about like the aftermath of that with mostly her and two of her cousins sort of sorting through this with the entire extended family and their rituals and the way people are treated and things come up from the past and then at the very end why it's called on becoming a
• 1:31:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: And this, I know there are people in our discord who say it's their favorite film of the year, I think, sad to each of you might have said that, for example, but did you see, I'll be coming a getting found, you have thoughts on that one?
• 1:31:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm, I think that without getting to spoilers, I, I don't know, it's, it's, it's, if anything,
• 1:31:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: an emotional release because that's why I didn't quite love it.
• 1:31:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: May frustrate some of you worse.
• 1:31:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's fair.
• 1:31:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because it denies like comfort of closure, you know, and it leads you with this lingering sense of uni on on ease.
• 1:31:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's exactly what makes it resonate.
• 1:31:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like it's elegant.
• 1:31:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: I will give it that without calling attention to itself.
• 1:32:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Often, it's observing characters from slight-removed, reinforcing the sense that we are witnessing a performance of normalcy rather than genuine intimacy.
• 1:32:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:32:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I liked it.
• 1:32:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, I'm with you.
• 1:32:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: I liked it.
• 1:32:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: I didn't love it necessarily as much as I want to.
• 1:32:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I think it's because it is, and it does have a certain surreal touch to it.
• 1:32:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: Like with the family gatherings and things that happen and such, um, it opens with, you know, the main characters driving back from a rave.
• 1:32:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: So she's dressed in this, like, particular outfit when she discovers her uncle's body on the road.
• 1:32:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um,
• 1:32:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: But it doesn't it's not as showy as as her first feature.
• 1:32:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm not a witch which really kind of made up a new folklore to explore social dynamics.
• 1:32:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I do prefer her first film.
• 1:32:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: But I know the last film from the indie spirit nominations you love.
• 1:33:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's the Colombian submission.
• 1:33:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: It was submitted to the Oscars.
• 1:33:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: It wasn't fortunately not shortlisted.
• 1:33:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's probably one of the ones people are most mad about not being shortlisted.
• 1:33:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: Why do you love a poet?
• 1:33:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, it's just the style of it.
• 1:33:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even even when you don't know nothing about...
• 1:33:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: the film itself.
• 1:33:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: When you see the aspect ratio, you see that it's going to be different for sure.
• 1:33:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's very creative, I think.
• 1:33:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a film that understands the distance between wanting to live artistically and actually surviving in the world.
• 1:33:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:33:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to get into spoilers, but I feel that I get it in the sense of the tone walking a delicate line between tenderness, irony, almost like cruel humor, exposing like vanities, contradictions.
• 1:34:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: of calling oneself an artist.
• 1:34:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the irony is deep empathy.
• 1:34:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:34:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I loved it for all the wrong reasons because I'm a very, I don't know.
• 1:34:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a very, and that's why I failed connected with Laura in sentimental value, because I'm okay.
• 1:34:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:34:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Trying so hard.
• 1:34:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, the chaos.
• 1:34:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: The chaos is just, for me, being an artist is just like being as the synonym of being an absolute chaos or all the time.
• 1:34:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: figuring out things and a poet does this very good very well.
• 1:34:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: It struck me the most, the portrayal of artistic identity.
• 1:34:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like being a poet, it's in a stable condition.
• 1:35:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's constantly something that you kind of negotiate in social spaces.
• 1:35:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, it's understated and observant.
• 1:35:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: The camera rarely dramatizes, it watches.
• 1:35:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really about literature.
• 1:35:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's about the stubborn need to create even when creation offers no clear future.
• 1:35:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well I'll say, so it's the central character is a middle-aged man who sort of
• 1:35:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: having to grapple with things like his mother's health, his relationship with his daughter, his, you know, what is going on with his career and finances and things like that.
• 1:35:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: And he's sort of being forced to.
• 1:35:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's not even a midlife crisis as much as a coming of age as a village man of motion picture.
• 1:35:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it is, it does have some absurdist touches, but I think I called it in my review the most realistically nuanced film I've ever seen.
• 1:36:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Because it's every character in this is...
• 1:36:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: There's, I mean, there's some you definitely don't root for, but the central characters, yeah, you root for them, but they're definitely flawed.
• 1:36:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Deeply undeniably flawed, unapologetically, but from the filmmaker's perspective, flawed, is funny.
• 1:36:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: So after I watched it, I'll say that it was the younger female character, Morso, who, it just made me, I reached out to a friend of mine who is a poet in Colombia.
• 1:36:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: Uh, who might haven't spoken to for a while.
• 1:36:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: I was like, oh, it's just, you know, think you watch this film, thinking about you, and she's like, oh, I'm so glad that you saw it just so you know, that's not how all Colombian poets are.
• 1:36:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think everyone's not mess like this guy, but it does, it is like laugh out loud for sure at some points, but also.
• 1:37:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: Deep, it grapples with some very real nuances, and it's, I think the one reason why it's so satisfying is because it is on an arc, not to be spoilery, but it's on an arc of someone who's being forced to question, will he step up and take responsibility for what he does wrong or will he not?
• 1:37:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: You know?
• 1:37:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: And what are the consequences of that going to be in the home milieu of his life now?
• 1:37:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't have said it better without spoilers.
• 1:37:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, yeah, a poet, I definitely recommend that one, that was one that people were really sad miss the short list.
• 1:37:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I also said, of course, I was really sad that
• 1:37:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: A useful ghost was disqualified from the short list.
• 1:37:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: That was the tie submission.
• 1:37:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's something with the paperwork, some bullshit thing.
• 1:38:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it was, that one is just a really absurdist.
• 1:38:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: It is a ghost story.
• 1:38:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, but it's kind of more about LGBTQ rights within, like, the Thai culture and the, it's about so much at the same time, you know, about authoritarianism, um, and so through that, it's, it's undeniably Thai, very specifically Thai, but it also feels universal because it's touching on.
• 1:38:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: So many things that's, you know, from from heterosexual manages to homosexual relationships to, yeah, just do people become collaborators or what does it cost them to stand up to the people who, but I'll told with Absurdist humor
• 1:38:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: For me, it's very strange and tender and unexpectedly unaspectedly moving.
• 1:39:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It almost makes up on you.
• 1:39:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: What makes it work so well is like a, it could be gimmicky.
• 1:39:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: It could be just something that people would laugh about and just, that's it.
• 1:39:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: into something deeply human.
• 1:39:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:39:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's about grief.
• 1:39:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's about memories, about usefulness.
• 1:39:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:39:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: For me, instead of traditional horror or supernatural tension, the film treats the ghostly presence like an awkward continuation of life.
• 1:39:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's there,
• 1:39:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: I useful those for me.
• 1:39:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just one of those movies that you you don't see every year.
• 1:39:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: No, it's very nice.
• 1:39:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It makes me so mad.
• 1:39:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:39:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's very unique.
• 1:39:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: You don't I'm I'm I'm I'm almost a positive that I won't see it in the decade.
• 1:40:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: No.
• 1:40:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Something like this.
• 1:40:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:40:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: No.
• 1:40:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it just they missed it bad.
• 1:40:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was just
• 1:40:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, I'll say one that I'm not sad about missing the short list is the Dutch submission.
• 1:40:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: I do have to call the Dutch submission every year.
• 1:40:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: This year it was read along the readland.
• 1:40:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: The reason it was chosen as a submission is because it debuted at Canada in the cement de la critique, so not the main competition, but one of the parallel competitions didn't win that, but that does mean it had got a bit of a higher profile.
• 1:40:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: Although the winner of the big Dutch film festival prize, the Golden Calf, was for Demisius or our girls in English, which is sort of a crime, well,
• 1:40:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, something happens to one of the girls and then there's the fallout of that.
• 1:40:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I'm not sad that wasn't submitted to be honest.
• 1:40:56
  [SPEAKER_05]: Redland is more.
• 1:40:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: I wrote a review of it for Contra Zoom.
• 1:41:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: I will post a link in the show notes for anyone who's curious about that, but it really Redland is a very opaque movie, frustratingly opaque, but it's absolutely stunning and it does capture this particular moment.
• 1:41:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: in the Netherlands and a lot of ways and sort of political aspects here.
• 1:41:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's about a read farmer in a dying industry and all of the threats from all around, but then he finds a girl's body in his field and becomes driven to investigate it.
• 1:41:34
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, my choice though would have been the propagandist, which is a documentary.
• 1:41:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: I will talk about that more in the documentaries episode, but it's about the, the, basically, the Reef install counterparts in the Netherlands during World War II who are creating the Dutch propaganda films in support of the Nazis, and that one just has stuck with me all year long, just deep in my head.
• 1:41:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: So that's the Dutch corner.
• 1:42:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: I need to watch it.
• 1:42:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, definitely, I definitely recommend watching the propaganda.
• 1:42:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: Did you get a chance to see the Mexican submission?
• 1:42:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: We shall not be moved.
• 1:42:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I got the chance to wash it, but, well, first of all, I think that it didn't really made it, it didn't really make it to the shortlist, because you need to have a lot of context to know what's happening.
• 1:42:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: We shall not be moved with Mexican drama that is set in Mexico City and it follows someone still haunted by a political crime that hunts every Mexican
• 1:42:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: from the night from 1968, the disappearance of her brother during a period of state for oppression.
• 1:42:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: And years later, when she believes that she has found the men that it's responsible, she begins like an obsessive search for truth and justice.
• 1:43:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it explores on-resolved political violence and how he continues to shape everyday life in my country.
• 1:43:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: through dark humor, emotional tension.
• 1:43:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: It shows memory, anger, grief, and how they can kind of persist across generations.
• 1:43:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Especially in my country where many crimes have never been fully investigated or even punished.
• 1:43:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it just focuses on action or
• 1:43:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: or an impersonal reckoning, what it means to live with questions that will remain unanswered, how we carry the weight of national history within our private lives.
• 1:43:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it was just very much, it was a lot to handle, it was a lot to convey.
• 1:44:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: For us Mexicans, it's a very straightforward thing.
• 1:44:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: The kind that comes from living in this country, where justice is promised, but almost never delivered and what makes it very powerful is that it frames
• 1:44:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: personal grief, I would say that at something that is inseparable from national history and that's what it feels that's why it feels like something for us Mexicans and not for people around the world.
• 1:44:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that it it race it made people raise their eyebrows like they were like what's happening here and what struck me the most is that this narrative
• 1:44:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Not as an explosive revelation, but as low accumulation of memory of resentment or suppressed anger, but it's just not my type of movie.
• 1:45:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't really watch it for a second time.
• 1:45:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And this year, as you have said it multiple times, it's a very competitive one.
• 1:45:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I really really say that
• 1:45:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: the only film that I think it surpasses it in terms of quality is just set up.
• 1:45:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, okay.
• 1:45:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, yeah, I mean, I think that's the it's yeah, as you say, it's a very competitive video.
• 1:45:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: There are other films I would like to see in there who weren't even in consideration for various reasons or were but didn't make it.
• 1:45:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, are there any others that you would like to
• 1:45:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: from the international field.
• 1:45:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 1:45:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that.
• 1:45:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, for me that I'm Latin American, or maybe from the Americas as well, I think that two of them I watched and I enjoyed them.
• 1:46:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was Canada's entry, the things you kill.
• 1:46:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: I haven't seen that one yet.
• 1:46:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I recommend that a lot.
• 1:46:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'd recommend that.
• 1:46:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not a perfect movie, but I was talking to the director and he was very nice about sharing films.
• 1:46:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: That film's information with me sharing things that he failed were important for me to understand it.
• 1:46:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I liked it like double as I did when I didn't know that.
• 1:46:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Banzel from Portugal.
• 1:46:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, I haven't seen that either.
• 1:46:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I remember that they shared some screeners with us.
• 1:46:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think in December, and I watched it because I was very invested in just watching what it was about.
• 1:47:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: It represents the legacy of
• 1:47:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Colonialism.
• 1:47:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: So for me, it was like a nice way to spend my evening that day, I think, and I liked it a lot.
• 1:47:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is said in 1907, and it's about a doctor that arrives on an island to begin a chapter of his life as a physician,
• 1:47:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: and will.
• 1:47:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: I liked it.
• 1:47:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I thought it was this indie very well done movie, but I just knew that it didn't have any any chance to be there on the shortlist sadly.
• 1:47:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, yeah, I, uh, I would say one that I hoped would make the shortlist and did not, uh, but it was eligible.
• 1:48:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: Otherwise was sorry, wife from the future that was the Indonesian film.
• 1:48:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: it's about, it's based, so it's actually a remake of, I watched the original story, which is this Indonesian web series that kind of was there to like advertise a stevia product for, you know, for coffee or whatever.
• 1:48:26
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, and, you know, the first one was very charming, but it was done, I don't, I forget how long ago, like at least 15 years ago, I think, and so it's, it's the same filmmaker, same lead actor, but he was much younger than.
• 1:48:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: And so now we have this more mature feature, which not only looks a million times better, obviously has a lot more money on it goes to several locations, changes some key aspects of it, but has the same basic premise, but it approaches this plot premise, which is that the wife from the future is she just pops up in the main character's life, and she's
• 1:49:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: why she's there.
• 1:49:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: She'll die on the spot and start the whole cycle over.
• 1:49:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: So it's a time loop movie.
• 1:49:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm a sucker for a time loop movie, but you just see the maturity in this feature that he's developed in just the thinking about what makes a healthy relationship and how much can one person help another and what does love really look like in those terms.
• 1:49:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: So
• 1:49:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: I just found it absolutely beautiful and, you know, funny and just all of the things that I love in a movie.
• 1:49:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: So, sorry, away from the future from Indonesia, highly recommended.
• 1:49:50
  [SPEAKER_05]: I've also, you know, I've mentioned before the ugly step sister from Norway that did we did at least, and I got to talk about that a bunch in the makeup episodes.
• 1:49:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: I won't go too much into that, but obviously,
• 1:50:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: wasn't eligible for this category because Norway submitted Sentimental value can't argue with that, but I just think it's a, yeah, you think it's a stunningly grotesque film in one of my favorites of the year.
• 1:50:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: I prefer it to Sentimental value personally, but that's because I'm a sicko who loves fairy tales.
• 1:50:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: I was reading, brothers, grim growing up, and this is very much a brother's grim take on Cinderella.
• 1:50:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I'll say I also loved the last Viking, which was also not eligible because it was not it's a was a co-production between Denmark and Sweden.
• 1:50:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I talked about this in the light and film fest, sorry.
• 1:50:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: I talked about this in the Imagine Fantastic Film Festival episode I
• 1:50:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: It won two prices there at one the audience award and at one like the best of your fee and film there and that's with Mads Mikkelson in a supporting role.
• 1:50:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: I would have totally had him nominated for that.
• 1:50:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: He's like completely transformed and it's this
• 1:51:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: absurdist comedy crime paper with a lot of depth about mental health and people judging, unhealthy people judging other people for being neurovergence, things like that, but it's then things blow up and people get punched and it's like a lot going on.
• 1:51:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: I was like, whoa, this is it's really cinema, but Denmark submitted Mr. Nobody against
• 1:51:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: against Putin, which fair we will talk about that in the dark nominations, and Sweden submitted eagles of the Republic, which I haven't gotten to watch yet, so I can't say whether that was fair, but I think Sweden should have submitted the last biking.
• 1:51:45
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:51:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you have anything to say about any of those if you got to see any, I'm sure you've seen the ugly stepsister because of or you will.
• 1:51:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: because of death racing.
• 1:51:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: I will, I will, I haven't.
• 1:52:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 1:52:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because of death racing, I will.
• 1:52:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, well, every person I've asked about that movie has recommended, okay.
• 1:52:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're just like, why haven't you watched it?
• 1:52:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Watch it right now.
• 1:52:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're like, do it, do it.
• 1:52:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Don't waste your time.
• 1:52:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: But with the caveat that it is very, there's some gross stuff, there's some gross stuff, both body horror and, like, you know, maggot type stuff.
• 1:52:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, I'm used to it.
• 1:52:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's beautifully grotesque though.
• 1:52:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: Some of them are beautiful grotesqueness, like broke style, okay.
• 1:52:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and then the last one I'll shout out is resurrection from from Begon, it's a Chinese film and it's actually I looked into it because I was curious it was released at the end of the year in China so it's actually not eligible for this year.
• 1:52:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's eligible for next year because people were upset about China not submitting it however that being said I don't think China will submit it next year either, but I do have highly recommended I talked about it in, um,
• 1:53:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: in a second breakfast episode for subscribers, but it's basically, it's about, it's a very surreal, very David Lynch style film.
• 1:53:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: If you're a David Lynch film watch this but it's like that with mind-blowing cinematography and it's about, it's about Chinese culture but it's in a style of like six pieces tracing the history of Chinese and world cinema from silent film to this
• 1:53:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: incredible 30 minute one shot at the end of it and is just an absolute cinematic masterpiece but we'll leave you scratching your head if you're not used to that sort of lynchian plot non-bots that leave you with impressions rather than concrete stories that go all the way through.
• 1:53:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: I, I, I, I, I remember that I watched, well, not I, I didn't really watch it because because I'm sorry because it was very difficult to contact to produce the director.
• 1:54:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I remember that I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing this wrong.
• 1:54:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: He was a sailor, I think.
• 1:54:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Magellan.
• 1:54:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the way you could say it.
• 1:54:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Magellan.
• 1:54:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm so sorry.
• 1:54:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's okay.
• 1:54:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: In my country, you say Magellan is a sailor.
• 1:54:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
• 1:54:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, your pronunciations more correct.
• 1:54:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
• 1:54:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I thought it was going to be at least talked about.
• 1:54:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he had a guy who got to have a mad, which, you know, is a Mexican actor.
• 1:54:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I thought it was going to get a lot more attention.
• 1:54:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the Oscars really owe it to the Philippines.
• 1:55:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: They've always tried.
• 1:55:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And they have the record for the movie, I think, for the country, with the most submissions without being nominated.
• 1:55:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:55:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I thought it was.
• 1:55:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: Wow, yeah.
• 1:55:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it wasn't a good film either because I thought it was going to be about this explore about her inner thoughts about stuff, but no, it's just, it's just his role in colonial campaigns and who cares about that.
• 1:55:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I haven't gotten a chance to see that one yet.
• 1:55:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: I will watch it.
• 1:55:43
  [SPEAKER_05]: I do love a girl go see her Bernal also, but yeah, I've heard like it's gorgeous, but people were kind of mad on the story on the way the writing was handled, I suppose.
• 1:55:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:55:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, I will put links to all these other films that we recommended in the show notes as well if you are heard anything that you are interested in checking out for yourself.
• 1:56:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, but I think that we've, we've card a lot of things.
• 1:56:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, quite a long conversation.
• 1:56:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much.
• 1:56:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: Do you have any predictions or thoughts about the other categories that you want to throw out there?
• 1:56:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm, I think that, well, I won't say that Marty's the premier's doomed, but I think that the multi-chalamet will not win.
• 1:56:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, he thinks we're winning.
• 1:56:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: He thinks we're winning.
• 1:56:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, I'm rooting for Wagner Mora.
• 1:56:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, okay, all right, yeah, this is your chance Wagner Mora.
• 1:57:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: I mean I think I think Wagnermore will get other chances.
• 1:57:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: I do think so.
• 1:57:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: I wouldn't be surprised if that happened.
• 1:57:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: He has won some precursors.
• 1:57:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm rooting.
• 1:57:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: I suppose for I mean, I guess I'm rooting.
• 1:57:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
• 1:57:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: I think just because Timothy Shalomai is the front runner, it's hard for me to root for him.
• 1:57:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm like, let's go for an ender dog.
• 1:57:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: Let's keep this interesting, and of course I am on record as being a sinner's stand so I am rooting for Michael B. Jordan.
• 1:57:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well.
• 1:57:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yes, I totally forgot about Michael B. Jordan.
• 1:57:38
  [SPEAKER_05]: What's your pick and prediction for best picture?
• 1:57:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: For best picture, I think it will go to one battle after another, even though I would prefer a sinner's one.
• 1:57:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Hmm.
• 1:57:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: I'm keeping hope alive.
• 1:57:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: Keep in hope alive.
• 1:57:53
  [SPEAKER_05]: But we'll see.
• 1:57:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's obviously, as we all know, it's between those two.
• 1:57:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: It would be shocking if something else walked away with it, but
• 1:58:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: like chaos rain just imagine if everyone wanted oh no no that would be upsetting come on there's a bunch of good choices on at least through a whole exactly but imagine if they threw a whole thing about like um when when what happened when broke back mountain oh yeah yeah yeah yeah i was i was bummed tonight yeah just imagine it
• 1:58:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: If, yeah, if all of the people are like, if, I mean, I suppose something, I don't know about F1, but another film could win if we get a real divide where some people are, because it's rank choice voting.
• 1:58:42
  [SPEAKER_05]: So maybe some people rank one battle after another at the top and sinners at the bottom or vice versa and that could end up knocking them both down surprisingly.
• 1:58:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think that's going to happen, but I'm just saying that's the one case in which we could get a surprise.
• 1:58:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 1:58:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, like we did when Koda won.
• 1:59:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, actually it was funny.
• 1:59:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: My mom was like predicting that the day before.
• 1:59:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: I was like, I don't know about that and then she was right.
• 1:59:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, my mom too.
• 1:59:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: So our moms are connected.
• 1:59:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we listen to the mom squad.
• 1:59:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:59:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: My mom was like, yeah, that's going to win.
• 1:59:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: It has so many other ways.
• 1:59:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, because my mom started to hear buzz from her friends and stuff, and I think, yeah, we have to keep in mind that a lot of the voters are from our parents generation.
• 1:59:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: I liked Coda.
• 1:59:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: I liked Coda, but it was, you know, it was a surprise winner.
• 1:59:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I liked it too, but it was a very big surprise.
• 1:59:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, all right.
• 1:59:48
  [SPEAKER_05]: This was a fantastic conversation.
• 1:59:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you for giving me so much of your time and thank you so much.
• 1:59:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: Sharing all of your thoughts and as I said, I will put the link to your blog in the show notes.
• 2:00:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: I encourage people to go check it out.
• 2:00:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: If you speak Spanish or if not, there's a little translate button and your blog again is dedicated especially to short film.
• 2:00:09
  [SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, as people have maybe noticed, I really like short films.
• 2:00:15
  [SPEAKER_05]: So I totally recommend checking out, which you have to say, you always have beautiful, a few sort of reviews of the films.
• 2:00:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: So thank you so much again.
• 2:00:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much.
• 2:00:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even though I don't have the same stylistic thing when it comes to speaking, I'm just,
• 2:00:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just a miss, a hot miss.
• 2:00:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: It says you, that's not what we think, but yeah, it is always, I prefer writing to speaking myself because it gives me time to really compose my thoughts in ways that I can really find the best words to succinctly and effectively communicate my points.
• 2:01:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I encourage all of your listeners to just dive into my blog a bit if even if it's in Spanish because I just did it in English here without knowing if it was going to be well or not.
• 2:01:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, yes, you can do it.
• 2:01:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: If I did it in English, you can do it in Spanish.
• 2:01:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, if the Super Bowl half-time show thought, taught you anything, it's Spanish is not a scary language,
• 2:01:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: All right.
• 2:01:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: The next week.
• 2:01:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much, Ecuador.
• 2:01:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much.
• 2:01:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 2:01:39
  [SPEAKER_05]: And since we recorded, we've had a few more awards come out.
• 2:01:44
  [SPEAKER_05]: So let's just check in on how are the five nominees doing in the awards so far?
• 2:01:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: We have, it was just an accident, was in early favourites, overall it's gotten 16 wins.
• 2:01:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: on her three times.
• 2:01:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: One of its wins by the way was the calm dorm door, which is one reason why it was expected to do even better than it has.
• 2:02:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's had 15 misses and I have to say that it's been trending toward misses.
• 2:02:13
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's wins were mostly earlier in the season.
• 2:02:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: There are still three awards pending, including, of course, the Oscars.
• 2:02:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Secret agent and sentimental value are the clear favorites in terms of the stats.
• 2:02:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: Secret agent has 23 wins on her 16 more times, and its wins include the Critics Choice Award, the Golden Globe, the Spirit Awards.
• 2:02:41
  [SPEAKER_05]: It has missed 42 times.
• 2:02:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: and it has six awards pending, including the Oscars.
• 2:02:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: Sentimental value similar, 21 wins, 12 more times honored.
• 2:02:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's wins include the Con Grumpree, the European film awards, the BAFTAs, the British Independent Film Awards, and the AARP movies for grown-up awards, now except for the last.
• 2:03:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: These do lean European, these wins.
• 2:03:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: It has missed 30 times and there are five awards pending including the Oscars.
• 2:03:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: So clearly these two are the front runners and might it come down to people voting for their block.
• 2:03:28
  [SPEAKER_05]: Latin American versus European will see.
• 2:03:31
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know in which way it would honestly favor it, but I do notice that the American Awards in general have been leaning secret agents, so I am no longer as certain as I thought I was in sentimental value taking this category.
• 2:03:46
  [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think it'll be the other two.
• 2:03:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: Serat has one, seven times, honored one other time.
• 2:03:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: It did win the Con Grand Jury Prize and the Pre-Decinema Art A-Sai, a special mention award.
• 2:04:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: It also got two other awards I didn't account here, but they're fun to call out the Con.
• 2:04:07
  [SPEAKER_05]: soundtrack award, because people love the sound on this, and the palm dog, the award for the best dog in cinema at the Crenjury Prize for that.
• 2:04:17
  [SPEAKER_05]: I will withhold further comment for reasons of spoilers.
• 2:04:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: And it, of course, it's a Spanish film.
• 2:04:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: It dominated the Gaudi awards.
• 2:04:27
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's got a lot of nominations at the upcoming Goya award.
• 2:04:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: So clearly it is Spain's
• 2:04:33
  [SPEAKER_05]: favorite film of the year.
• 2:04:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: It did well the European awards to in the blood-the-line categories.
• 2:04:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: It has missed 14 times overall with two pending including the Oscars, and voice of him, Rajab, has had the least number of nominations.
• 2:04:49
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's 1-13 though, and on it been honored one more time, it did win the Venice Film Festival Grand jury prize, and seven other awards there.
• 2:05:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: It's missed six times and there's one pending the Oscars and it's won a lot of awards I've to say in the realm of, you know, films for human rights.
• 2:05:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: That's sort of thing.
• 2:05:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: So if there is a strong wish to make a statement with voting for this film that could be one way in which it comes through.
• 2:05:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: Just another update to the conversation before, at the time of recording, I didn't know this but right after we recorded, I found out that no other choice was coming to video on demand, so it is out now as of the time that you are listening to this.
• 2:05:35
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, and just a heads up that this coming Sunday, March 1st is the actor awards, formerly known as the Saga Awards, these air on Netflix at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, and there will be a discord live chat, um, so if you are interested in watching along and chatting with us, join us there.
• 2:05:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: The next Oscar episodes are going to be this is going to be a week of special category deep dives.
• 2:06:05
  [SPEAKER_05]: This was the first, but next up we'll be documentaries followed shortly thereafter by music and then we'll be ending next week with the Tech Award category.
• 2:06:18
  [SPEAKER_05]: So watch out for that.
• 2:06:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: And of course, let's else going on on the Laura Hound's main feed, uh, John and David are still doing their weekly coverage of the pit, which they have been leaning into even more now.
• 2:06:30
  [SPEAKER_05]: Uh, the, a night at the seven kingdoms coverage just wrapped up, but there will still be one more wrap up episode coming to the properly Howard feed with Steven Anthony.
• 2:06:40
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, watch out for one-offs in the main feed, there will be some one-piece coverage starting with John and I talking about season one, which I'm in the middle of watching now as I record.
• 2:06:51
  [SPEAKER_05]: And there's also going to be a bone-tabble episode coming up as well.
• 2:06:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: Um, super cast and patreon.
• 2:06:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: You're, you've already got frozen foods for the month of February, and next up is going to be Annie Hall for Diane Keaton Month.
• 2:07:06
  [SPEAKER_05]: And I think that'll
• 2:07:11
  [SPEAKER_05]: and speaking of Supercast and Patreon subscribers.
• 2:07:14
  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, first we need to, as always, thank our Discord server boosters who make that a better place to hang.
• 2:07:21
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Aaron K. Tillard, the thriller, do 71 Athena Agilella, the Stu Nancy M, Ghost Partition, Radioactive Richard, and Adrienne.
• 2:07:29
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you to all of our subscribers who give us the juice to keep going most especially our lore masters.
• 2:07:36
  [SPEAKER_05]: We depend upon you.
• 2:07:41
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• 2:07:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: Mothership 61, Nars?
• 2:07:54
  [SPEAKER_05]: Kathy W. Listoo, Jeffrey B. Lisa U. Ben B. Scott F. Stevenen, Julia F. Calliest.
• 2:08:08
  [SPEAKER_05]: LNR, Mrs. Tenet, A.C. Wilson, E.L.I.W.
• 2:08:12
  [SPEAKER_05]: Cassie-K, Chandler-Runi, Katiya, Josh-Lu, Payton-PDX, Cori-G, Quinch, and always last Adrian.
• 2:08:20
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you to all of you who are listening, especially if you listened this far.
• 2:08:25
  [SPEAKER_05]: Please share this episode with anyone else who would love to discover the best of this year's world of film.
• 2:08:32
  [SPEAKER_05]: And you can leave a nice rating and review wherever you're listening that would help us out enormously.
• 2:08:37
  [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much and please check out our affiliates like never mind the music and properly Howard starting a new movie season.
• 2:08:47
  [SPEAKER_05]: You can find all those links in the show notes plus links to our discord and our email address because we would love to hear your feedback.
• 2:08:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: What Oscar movies are you looking forward to this season?
• 2:08:58
  [SPEAKER_05]: What in a national movies?
• 2:09:00
  [SPEAKER_05]: We're your favorites this year.
• 2:09:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: We want to hear it all.
• 2:09:03
  [SPEAKER_05]: Send it to us at lorehounds.com and speak to you again soon, next up, Documentaries, which we realized while recording are not as heavy as they seem on the surface.
• 2:09:16
  [SPEAKER_05]: There's some pretty fun cool documentaries this year.
• 2:09:19
  [SPEAKER_05]: Rebecca June, Lane and I are going to tell you all about it in the next episode.
• 2:09:24
  [SPEAKER_05]: Until then, bye!
• 2:09:27
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• 2:09:30
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• 2:09:36
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• 2:09:42
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• 2:09:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening.