List of Australian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Last updated

Australia has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1996. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. [1] As of 2017, eleven Australian films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and one, Tanna , has been nominated for the award. [2] The Australian submission is selected by a committee of Australian industry professionals convened and selected by Screen Australia.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honorary organization of film professionals

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches.

In motion picture terminology, feature length is the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.

<i>Tanna</i> (film) 2015 film by Bentley Dean, Martin Butler

Tanna is a 2015 Australian-Ni-Vanuatu film set on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific, depicting the true story of a couple who decided to marry for love, rather than obey their parents' wishes. Starring Marie Wawa and Mungau Dain, the movie, which is in some ways similar to Romeo and Juliet, is based on an actual marriage dispute.

Contents

Submissions

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. [3] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award. [1] Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Australia for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.

Secret ballot voting style that makes each vote anonymous

The secret ballot, also known as Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.

Year
(Ceremony)		Film title used in nominationOriginal titleLanguage(s)DirectorResult
1996
(69th) 		Floating Life Floating Life Cantonese, English, German Clara Law Not Nominated
2001
(74th) 		La Spagnola La Spagnola Spanish, English, Italian Steve Jacobs Not Nominated
2006
(79th) 		Ten Canoes Ten Canoes Yolngu Matha, Kunwinjku,
English 		Rolf de Heer Not Nominated
2007
(80th) 		The Home Song Stories The Home Song Stories Cantonese, English, Mandarin Tony Ayres Not Nominated
2009
(82nd) 		Samson and Delilah [4] Samson and Delilah Warlpiri, English Warwick Thornton Made January Shortlist
2012
(85th) 		Lore [5] Lore German Cate Shortland Not Nominated
2013
(86th) 		The Rocket [6] The Rocket Lao Kim Mordaunt Not Nominated
2014
(87th) 		Charlie's Country [7] Charlie's Country Yolngu Matha Rolf de Heer Not Nominated
2015
(88th) 		Arrows of the Thunder Dragon [8] Arrows of the Thunder Dragon Dzongkha Greg Sneddon Not Nominated
2016
(89th) 		Tanna [9] Tanna Nauvhal Martin Butler, Bentley Dean Nominated [2]
2017
(90th) 		The Space Between [10] The Space Between Italian Ruth Borgobello Not Nominated
2018
(91st) 		Jirga [11] Jirga Pashto Benjamin Gilmour Not Nominated

As a majority-English-speaking country, Australia only infrequently sends non-English language movies to the Oscars. Three of their first five submissions were stories of the lives of immigrants to Australia. Australia's first submission, Floating Life is a drama about Cantonese immigrants from Hong Kong who reunite with their daughter who moved to Australia several years before. The second submission, La Spagnola is a black comedy about a pregnant Spanish immigrant who is deserted by her husband after arriving in Australia. A subsequent submission, The Home Song Stories is about a Chinese woman from Shanghai who moves to Australia with her two children after marrying an Australian citizen. Both principal actors, Clara Law and Tony Ayres, were born in Macau and became naturalized Australian citizens.

Hong Kong East Asian city

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Shanghai Municipality in Peoples Republic of China

Shanghai is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of the central government of the People's Republic of China, the most populous city in China, and the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of 26.3 million as of 2019. It is a global financial center and transport hub, with the world's busiest container port. Located in the Yangtze River Delta, it sits on the south edge of the estuary of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the Eastern China coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the south, east and west, and is bound to the east by the East China Sea.

Macau Special Administrative Region of China

Macau or Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a special administrative region of China on the western side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With a population of 667,400 and an area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.

Australia's 2006, 2009 and 2014 submissions were Aboriginal Australian stories. Ten Canoes was the first feature film made primarily in one of Australia's Aboriginal languages. [12] The film, set before the arrival of white Australian settlers, tells a story within a story, about what happens when a young man falls for one of the brides of the local chief. Samson & Delilah, the first Australian film to make an Oscar shortlist, won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2009, and focused on a teenaged Aboriginal couple on the run.

Australian Aboriginal languages 290–363 languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians

The Australian Aboriginal languages consist of around 290–363 languages belonging to an estimated 28 language families and isolates, spoken by Aboriginal Australians of mainland Australia and a few nearby islands. The relationships between these languages are not clear at present. Despite this uncertainty, the Indigenous Australian languages are collectively covered by the technical term "Australian languages", or the "Australian family".

A story within a story is a literary device in which one character within a narrative narrates. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device. A story within a story can be used in all types of narration: novels, short stories, plays, television programs, films, poems, songs, and philosophical essays. The inner stories are told either simply to entertain or more usually to act as an example to the other characters. In either case the story often has symbolic and psychological significance for the characters in the outer story. There is often some parallel between the two stories, and the fiction of the inner story is used to reveal the truth in the outer story. Often the stories within a story are used to satirize views, not only in the outer story, but also in the real world. When a story is told within another instead of being told as part of the plot, it allows the author to play on the reader's perceptions of the characters—the motives and the reliability of the storyteller are automatically in question. Stories within a story may disclose the background of characters or events, tell of myths and legends that influence the plot, or even seem to be extraneous diversions from the plot. In some cases, the story within a story is involved in the action of the plot of the outer story. In others, the inner story is independent, so that it can either be skipped over or be read separately, although many subtle connections may be lost. Sometimes, the inner story serves as an outlet for discarded ideas that the author deemed to be of too much merit to leave out completely, something that is somewhat analogous to the inclusion of deleted scenes with DVD releases of films. Often, there is more than one level of internal stories, leading to deeply-nested fiction.

Cannes Film Festival annual film festival held in Cannes, France

The Cannes Festival, until 2002 called the International Film Festival and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.

See also

Cinema of Australia

The Australian film industry had its beginnings with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film ever made. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers started their careers in Australian films, a large number of whom have acquired international reputations, and a number of whom have found greater financial benefits in careers in larger film-producing centres, such as in the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 "Rule Thirteen: Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Oscars 2017: The full nominations". BBC News. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  3. ↑ "History of the Academy Awards - Page 2". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  4. ↑ Runner-up: Van Diemen's Land, directed by Jonathan auf der Heide. Source: http://www.screendaily.com/awards/academy-awards/academy-awards-news/australia-selects-samson-for-foreign-language-oscar/5006233.article
  5. ↑ "Australian film Lore up for an Oscar". Vogue. Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  6. ↑ "Australian film The Rocket has a shot at the Oscars". The Australian. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Oscars: Australia Selects 'Charlie's Country' for Foreign-Language Category". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Maddox, Garry (9 October 2015). "Arrows the Thunder Dragon: the Australian Oscar contender you won't have heard of". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  9. ↑ Frater, Patrick (23 August 2016). "Australia Selects 'Tanna' as Foreign-Language Oscar Contender". Variety . Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Kilday, Gregg (5 October 2017). "Oscars: 92 Films Submitted in Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  11. ↑ Groves, Don (9 October 2018). "'Jirga' is Australia's submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar". If. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  12. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466399/trivia
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.