On Monday, France made the somewhat surprising decision to place its Oscar bets in the hands of the master provocateur Paul Verhoeven, an auteur known for boundary-pushing populist fare.
The film-maker, whose work includes Showgirls and Basic Instinct, has never made it his mission to pander to the Academy. His film in question, Elle, does star Isabelle Huppert, one of the most celebrated actors of all time - but the thriller, about a steely businesswoman caught in a game of cat and mouse with her rapist, refuses to tone down the director’s confrontational style. In France, where the film opened in May following its debut at the Cannes film festival, there was nary a hint of controversy. That’s likely to change when Elle arrives on these shores on 11 November.
It’s notable that instead of going with François Ozon’s Frantz, a period war drama that plays more to the Academy’s often cautious sensibilities, France went for this year’s most button-pushing Cannes selection (each country can only nominate a single film). Verhoeven, who is from the Netherlands, has made fewer films than Ozon over the course of his career, but he’s indisputably better known, and his film higher profile – all of which highlights a trend that’s emerged in this year’s race for the foreign award.
Frequent competitors - such as France, Spain, Iran, South Korea and Chile - have opted to bank on festival favorites from directors with significant art-house clout.
As tried-and-tested as this method of attack sounds, it’s in fact not a given occurrence. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain’s most renowned living film-maker, has made more than 15 films, but has only represented his country in the category five times. With Spain’s decision to support his latest melodrama, Julieta, that tally has now grown to six. It marks the first time Almodóvar’s been nominated by his country since 2006’s Volver, despite the fact his fans in Spain largely shunned the drama, resulting in smaller-than-average homespun numbers for the prolific director.
Similar to Spain, Italy doesn’t seem too concerned with box office clout, having chosen Gianfranco Rosi’s refugee-crisis-themed documentary Fire at Sea over some of the country’s splashier, star-driven output. The film opened to paltry figures in Italy over the spring. What seems to matter for Spain, however, is that the film has a proven hit at festivals, having won the Golden Bear at the Berlin international film festival (a rare feat for a documentary) and garnered acclaim at several more.
Germany and Chile have followed suit, placing their hopes in Maren Ade’s Cannes favorite Toni Erdmann and Pablo Larraín’s festival darling Neruda, respectively. Ade isn’t as established as the bulk of directors vying for the prize, having helmed four features prior to the family comedy, but as many critics would wager, Toni Erdmann is distinctive enough to warrant her the auteur moniker.
The same goes for Larraín, who is in the midst of a remarkable run this year, having premiered Neruda, his metafictional portrait of the celebrated poet and politician Pablo Neruda, at Cannes, followed mere months later by the debut of Jackie at Venice. Both films confirm him as a world-class film-maker.
Other big-name players in the mix this year include South Korea’s Kim Jee-woon (The Age of Shadows), the Iranian Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman), Canada’s wunderkind Xavier Dolan (It’s Only the End of the World), and the Philippines’ Brilliante Mendoza (Ma’ Rosa). Like the aforementioned talent, all produce singular work that’s often brazen and uncompromising.
As far as the 2017 Oscar race for best foreign film goes, one thing’s for certain: the competition is bound to be a clash of the titans.
