Kinoblog

The Best Foreign Film Oscar shortlist has been whittled down to nine titles, with three of the nominations going to Eastern European films.

Predictably, Wajda’s Katyń is still on the list, though there’s a surprise in that Cristian Mungiu’s masterly 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile) has been dropped in favour of Sergei Bodrov’s admittedly hugely entertaining but decidedly silly Genghis Khan epic Mongol. The others are Nikita Mikhalkov’s 12 and Srdan Golubović’s The Trap (Klopka).

According to the Hollywood Reporter, a record 63 films are on the initial longlist for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The full list is here, and these are the Central and Eastern European submissions:

• Azerbaijan: Caucasia (d. Farid Gumbatov)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: It’s Hard to Be Nice/Teško je biti fin (d. Srđan Vuletić) - IMDB/Variety
• Bulgaria: Warden of the Dead/Пазачът на мъртвите (d. Ilian Simeonov) - IMDB/Variety
• Croatia: Armin (d. Ognjen Sviličić) - IMDB/Website/Variety
• Czech Republic: I Served the King of England/Obsluhoval jsem Anglického krále (d.Jiří Menzel) - IMDB/Website/Variety
• Estonia: The Class/Klass (d. Ilmar Raag) - IMDB/Website/Variety
• Georgia: The Russian Triangle/Русский треугольник (d. Aleko Tsabadze) - IMDB/Website
• Hungary: Taxidermia (d. György Pálfi) - IMDB/Website/Trailer/Variety
• Macedonia: Shadows/Senki (d. Milcho Manchevski) - IMDB/Trailer/Variety
• Poland: Katyń (d. Andrzej Wajda) - IMDB/Website/Trailer
• Romania: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (d. Cristian Mungiu) - IMDB/Website/Clip/Variety
• Russia, 12 (d. Nikita Mikhalkov) - IMDB/Variety
• Serbia: The Trap/Klopka (d. Srdan Golubović) - IMDB/Website/Variety
• Slovakia: Return of the Storks/Návrat bocianov (d. Martin Repka) - IMDB/Trailer
• Slovenia: Short Circuits/Kratki stiki (d. Janez Lapajne) - IMDB /Website/Variety