A scene from Agniezska Holland's Burning Bush.
Agniezska Holland's Burning Bush, which will have its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival, has joined the growing list of Best Foreign Language Oscar contenders. The Czech film joins the list along with other recent additions including Norway's I Am Yours (Jeg er din), Hong Kong's The Grandmaster and Iceland's Of Horses and Men.
The Czech Film and Television Academy chose Holland's Burning Bush, produced by HBO Europe for its entry in the race, according to Hollywood Reporter. The film centers on Charles University student Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in Czech capital Prague's Wenceslas Square in 1969, a year after Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces ended the Prague Spring, which marked a thaw in Communist rule.</p>
Angieszka Holland and star Tatiana Pauhofova will be present at NYFF for its debut October 4. Holland will participate in an HBO Directors Dialogue October 5.
Wong Kar-wai's martial arts saga The Grandmaster, which opened the Berlin International Film Festival in February and also screened as a special event at Film Society ahead of its Stateside theatrical release will represent Hong Kong for Oscar consideration, reports The Guardian. Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Zhang Ziyi, the film is a study of the life of kung fu legend Ip Man.
Norway's Oscar committee selected Iram Haq's first feature I Am Yours for submission in the wake of its North American premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. The film is the story of a young, single mother looking for “the one and only.” She has different boyfriends, but the relationships never work. But then falls for Swede, Jesper, though he does not seem ready for family life.
Benedikt Erlingsson's Of Horses and Men was chosen electronically by the Icelandic Film and TV Academy as its choice, according to Screen Daily. The film is Erlingsson's first feature. He is an award-winning actor and theater director who wrote the script for the film. It is described as a country romance about “the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human, an ensemble film that tells stories of love and death. The struggles in the life of men and horses are often shown from the horses’ point of view and in the end all is tied together in the annual autumn round-up of the horses.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the nominations on January 16, 2014, and the 86th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 2, 2014.
Current submissions for Best Foreign Language Oscar consideration follow:
15 Years and a Day, Gracia Querejeta (Spain)
Bad Destiny, Draško Đurović (Montenegro)
Blind Spot, Christophe Wagner (Luxembourg)
Borgman, Alex van Warmerdam (The Netherlands)
Boy Eating The Bird’s Food, Ektoras Lygizos (Greece)
Breach in the Silence, Luis Rodríguez, Andrés Rodríguez (Venezuela)
Burning Bush, Angieszka Holland (Czech Republic)
The Butterfly’s Dream, Yılmaz Erdoğan (Turkey)
Circles, Srdan Golubovic (Serbia)
Child’s Pose, Calin Peter Netzer (Romania)
Class Enemy, Rok Biček (Slovenia)
The Colour of the Chameleon, Emil Hristov (Bulgaria)
Countdown, Nattawut Poonpiriya (Thailand)
Disciple, Ulrika Bengts (Finland)
Eat Sleep Die, Gabriela Pichler (Sweden)
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Four Corners, Ian Gabriel (South Africa)
Gabrielle, Louise Archambault (Canada)
Gloria, Sebastián Lelio (Chile)
God’s Horses, Nabil Ayouch (Morocco)
The Good Road, Gyan Correa (India)
The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong)
The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
The Great Passage, Yuya Ishii (Japan)
Halima’s Path, Arsen Anton Ostojić (Croatia)
The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
I Am Yours, Iram Haq (Norway)
Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen (Singapore)
In Bloom, Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß (Georgia)
Juvenile Offender, Kang Yi-kwan (South Korea)
La Playa DC, Juan Andrés Arango (Colombia)
Lines of Wellington, Valeria Sarmiento (Portugal)
More Than Honey, Markus Imhoof (Switzerland)
Mother, I Love You, Janis Nords (Latvia)
My Dog Killer, Mira Fornay (Slovakia)
Of Horses and Men, Benedikt Erlingsson (Iceland)
The Notebook, Janosz Szasz (Hungary)
Soongava: Dance of the Orchids, Subarna Thapa (Nepal)
Soul, Chung Mong-hong (Taiwan)
Stalingrad, Fedor Bondarchuk (Russia)
Transit, Hannah Espia (Philippines)
Wadjda, Haifaa Al Mansour (Saudi Arabia)
Walesa. Man of Hope, Andrzej Wajda (Poland)
White Lies, Dana Rotberg (New Zealand)
Metro Manila, Sean Ellis (United Kingdom)
Paradjanov, Serge Avedikian, Olena Fetisova (Ukraine)
Renoir, Gilles Bourdos (France)
The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt (Australia)
The Wall, Julian Pölsler (Austria)
Who’s the Boss?, Ronni Castillo (Dominican Republic)
Zinda Bhaag, Meenu Gaur, Farjad Nabi (Pakistan)
