Sorry if this has been brought up before, but does anyone know why this film wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Picture at the Academy Awards? I mean, it was nominated for best screenplay (not an easy feat for a foreign film), so I would think at least a nomination for best foreign picture would be a shoe in.
It was such a fantastic film, and it was very well reviewed. I'm confused
Everybody Lies
The oscars were blunderous in the foreign language film category. This 5 should had been nominated instead:
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
2. The Orphanage
3. The diving bell
4. Tropa de elite
5. The Edge of heaven
'The Diving Bell and Butterfly' is an american production and the director Julian Schnabel changed in the last minute the language (see the Trivia).
As for me, the Best movies in foreign language in 2007 are:
4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile - Romania,
Klass - Estonia.
And others as good as 'Diving Bell' are:
Restul e Tacere ('The Rest Is Silence') from Nae Caranfil - Romania,
La Vie en Rose - France,
Izgnanie - Russia,
Du Levande - coproduction (Sweden, Germany, France, Dennmark, Norway),
Beaufort - Israel,
The Band's Visit - Israel (even if over 50% is spoken in english),
Persepolis - France.
I'd like to know why this film wasn't nominated for BEST PICTURE, not just Best Foreign Film. I think it is far superior to any of the five nominees. (I mean, come on, does anyone REALLY think "Atonement" is better than this?) I think this is the best film I've seen this century!
(BTW, Fallingslowly21, are you a fan of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova? Their Oscar win for Best Original Song was the only good thing about the Oscars this year.)
The Academy has some fairly absurd rules regarding the foreign language film category.
For starters, films are eligible based on their release date in their home country, unlike every other category, where eligibility is determined based on a film's U.S. [or more specifically, it's Los Angeles] release date.
The film Academy from every country [with the exception of the U.S.] is permitted to submit one film as its choice to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Even if the French film Academy wanted to submit The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (as a few French production companies did have their hands in making it), it was primarily a U.S./French co-production, and probably would be considered more of a U.S. production, since Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Kilik, American producers who run American production companies, were the two most important producers on the film. It should also be noted that if Julian Schnabel (an American) hadn't been chosen to direct this, it more than likely would have been shot in English - he insisted on keeping the story in French.
God is nowhere, God is now here
"Tell them that joke you know."