MADness—the Blog

The Best Picture award will be the presented tomorrow night at the end of the ceremony.  The name on the award may be a misnomer.  The award is truly an award for English-language films.  That’s how it’s worked historically.  Foreign-language films have their own category—which is great since the foreign films can use all the attention they can get, but it’s a mistake to think that those films are any less worthy than the English-language Best Picture nominees.  In fact, it’s clear that the foreign films are better than some of the B.P. nominees, and over the years the real “best picture” is often among the foreign titles.

The filmmakers behind the five nominated foreign-language films were featured at a symposium at the the Academy today.  It was a great event—a special honor for the nominees, and a special treat to be in the audience.  Clips from each of the films were presented, followed by a panel discusssion with the directors.  The program was moderated by the Mark Johnson of the Academy, who made the point that this past year was the best for foreign-language films in the years he’s been running the awards committee. 

It’s a shame that more Americans don’t see foreign-language films.  There’s a small and loyal following for foreign films, but the larger audience stays away.  I’m not sure why that is.  Is it too hard for Americans to read subtitles?  Do Americans just not care what happens elsewhere in the world?  Whatever it is, it makes it hard for a filmmaker or company to release a foreign-language film in the U.S. and make money.  Which means that many of the world’s great films never even make it into the U.S. market.  In fact this year’s Oscar entry from Peru still doesn’t have a release scheduled here.

What can you do about it?  Go see a foreign-language film.  You won’t be disappointed.

You may want to start with this year’s nominees.  Three of the films are playing now, and the Argentine film opens in a few weeks.