Oscars

And there were nine...

... foreign film contenders. This year the Academy started using a different process for determining the five Foreign Language Film Nominees, using a 2 phase process. The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 61 eligible films and their ballots determined the shortlist.

A Phase II committee, made up of ten randomly selected members from the Phase I group, joined by additional ten-member contingents in New York and Los Angeles, will view the shortlisted films and select the five 2006 nominees for the category.

I just found this out the other day and it comes as a bit of a surprise... On the other hand it could help making sure that even though the Nominees will be selected by only 30 people, at least they would have seen all the 9 "top" choices. And here are the ones that are left, in alphabetical order, by country:

• Algeria, “Days of Glory,” Rachid Bouchareb, director
• Canada, “Water,” Deepa Mehta, director
• Denmark, “After the Wedding,” Susanne Bier, director
• France, “Avenue Montaigne,” Daniele Thompson, director
• Germany, “The Lives of Others,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director
• Mexico, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo del Toro, director
• The Netherlands, “Black Book,” Paul Verhoeven, director
• Spain, Volver, Pedro Almodovar, director
• Switzerland, “Vitus,” Fredi M. Murer, director

Most of the usual suspects are there: Almodovar (Spain), Pan's Labyrinth which gets a lot of advertisement these days, the Canadian hit from last year, and movies from countries that made the short list many times: France, Germany, Netherlands.

Phase II screenings will take place from Friday, January 19, through Sunday, January 21, in both Hollywood and New York City.