France, Denmark and Finland announced their respective official entries in the International Feature Film Category for Oscars, on November 19. Two of Us, directed by Filippo Meneghetti, is France’s official entry while Zaida Bergroth’s Tove is Finland’s. Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round is Denmark’s official entry for the Oscars.
French film Two of Us premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and revolves around two elderly and retired women who concealed but nourished their love from the public eye for decades in the garb of friendship. What follows is a series of events that threaten their relationship. So far, at 39 nominations for the Oscars’ International Feature Film Award, France has the highest number of nominations and has won 12 of them.
Finland presented Zaida Bergroth’s Tove, which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year. The biographical drama based on a free-spirited Finnish author, who is at the brink of artistic success and in an open relationship with a politician and a theatre director, as per Nordisk Film & TV Fond.
The Finnish Oscars jury said that the film, also the second most expensive Finnish one, “tells a universal story about looking and finding love and about the passion of making art”.
Another Round marks director Thomas Vinterberg’s third entry after The Celebration (1998), and The Hunt (2013). The film features Mads Mikkelsen and this is the actor-director duo’s second outing after The Hunt. It revolves around “four men in mid-life experimenting with alcohol to rekindle the fire of their youth. The result is an insightful, tender and entertaining film balancing tragedy with a good dose of humour,” as per Claus Ladegaard, who chairs the Oscars committee.
The film was the first selection under the prestigious Cannes Label 2020 edition and had its international premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival. It went on to win the Silver Shell- Best Acting Award at San Sebastian for all the four leads- Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe. The film also bagged the Virtual Audience Award for Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival.
Ruthy Pribar’s Asia was announced as Israel’s official run for the awards’ International Feature Film Category after the film won the Ophir Award, the Oscar equivalent of the country, on November 13. It won in the Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Cinematography awards categories and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival bagging the Best Actress Award there.
The film, which deals with a Russian immigrant mother and her relationship with her daughter, was conferred upon with the Nora Ephron Award in memory of the late filmmaker.
While India is yet to announce its Oscar entry, three Indian filmmakers have been invited to the Oscars 2021 jury- Nishtha Jain, Shirley Abraham, and Amit Madhesiya.
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Some other entries include Mexico’s I’m No Longer Here, Indonesia’s Impetigore, Japan’s True Mothers, Germany’s And Tomorrow the Entire World, Czech Republic’s Charlatan, and South Korea’s The Man Standing Next. Netflix has pitched four films for the Oscar race- Mank, The Trial of Chicago 7, Da 5 Bloods, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The final list of nominations will be announced on March 13, 2021.