A cursory glance at this year’s nominations for the Golden Globe’s ‘Foreign Language’ category, or the BAFTA’s more delicately phrased ‘Film Not In The English Language’ category, will show you that the overwhelming majority of nominees are from Europe. At the Globes, the eventual winner, Elle , is a France, Belgium and Germany co-production, Toni Erdmann is a Germany, Austria, Romania co-production, while The Salesman is a France, Iran co-production, and Divines is a France, Qatar collaboration. Even the resolutely Chilean Neruda also has co-production partners from France, Spain, Argentina and the U.S.
Over at the BAFTAs, it is a virtual clean sweep for Europe. Apart from the afore-mentioned Toni Erdmann , Dheepan is from France, Julieta is from Spain, Son of Saul is from Hungary and Mustang is a France, Germany, Turkey and Qatar co-production. Europe is a filmmaking continent with a proud history of producing world-class cinema year after year, so it is no surprise that the awards and nominations reflect this, especially in the big Western awards like the Oscars, Globes and BAFTAs, as, apart from cultural familiarity (with the odd guilt expiation thrown in from time to time), voters are also used to the grammar and idiom of filmmaking from that part of the world.
However, Europe does not a world cinema make. It is surprising not to see anything from Asia to at least score a nomination this year. For argument’s sake, if we accept that Turkey is an Asian country, Mustang director Deniz Gamze Ergüven may be Ankara-born, but she was raised in and lives in France and her storytelling is as European as it gets, despite the Turkish subject.
It is not like Asia is not producing films that are nominations and awards-worthy. Off the top of my head I can think of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (Korea), Philip Yung’s Port of Call (Hong Kong), or K Rajagopal’s A Yellow Bird (Singapore), to name just three this awards season. And I was extremely disappointed when one of my favourite films of the year, Makoto Shinkai’s masterly anime film Your Name , a huge critical and commercial success around the world, did not score a nomination in the animation category at the BAFTAs or Globes, let alone in the foreign language category.
It is always heartening to see Anglophone countries submitting films in the Academy Awards foreign language category. This year, the U.K submitted Babak Anvari’s hypnotic Persian-language horror Under the Shadow to the Oscars, as it is a majority British production. Sadly, it did not make the long list. And before you ask, seven of the nine long-listed films are from Europe, if we include The Salesman in that list. Of the ones that are not, the Nauvhal language Tanna is from Anglophone Australia, while the French-language It’s Only the End of the World is from Anglo and Francophone Canada. And, barring The Salesman , none of the nominees are from Asia or Africa or South America. On January 24, I’ll be watching with keen interest to see just how dominant Europe will be at the Academy Award foreign language nominations.
