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OSCAR AWARD FINALISTS SHOWN IN THE 30th SÃO PAULO FILM FESTIVAL

Following the recent commercial release of, among others, Rachid Bouchareb’s Indigènes (Days of Glory), audiences and the media are now getting ready for February 25, when the 2007 Oscars will be awarded.

Starting with the aforementioned war drama, which is Algeria’s nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category (even though it is a co-production with France, Belgium and Morocco), several Academy finalists were previously screened at the 30th São Paulo Film Festival. While reliving the participation of Algerian and Moroccan fighters in the liberation of France from the Nazis, the movie brings together the greatest five actors in French cinema who have this ancestry, particularly Jamel Dobbouze ( from Amélie, shown at the festival’s 25th edition), who is also co-producer of Days of Glory.

The biggest surprise among the finalists (also chosen for last year’s Festival), however, was Mexican director Guilermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (El Labirinto del Fauno). The movie, which will represent Mexico at the Academy Awards, is a co-production with Spain and the US. The surprise didn’t arise from its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, but its unforeseen recognition by the Academy, which nominated it for five other awards (Original Screenplay by Del Toro himself, Cinematography, Art Direction, Original Score and Makeup). This represents the acknowledgment of an artist who has chosen to work in the fantasy genre and who has made very few concessions in his career, even in blockbusters such as Hellboy.

The Danish candidate was also among those selected for the 30th Festival: the as yet commercially unreleased Efter Brylluppet (After the Wedding), by Susanne Bier, a Festival veteran whose former works, Det bli`r i familien (Family Matters) Pensionat Oskar (Like it Never was Before) and Brøders (Brothers), were shown at the Festival’s 18th, 19th and 29th editions, respectively. In her latest work, Bier addresses the issue of how globalization has shortened communication distances, but at the same time broadened social distances, in this story of family secrets, humanitarian acts and many a structural abyss.

The other nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film award are: Germany’s Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), by first-time producer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, a critically acclaimed tragicomical look at the spy network in Eastern Germany in the early 80s, and Canada’s Water, by Deepa Mehta, director of Sam & Me (selected for the Festival’s 16th edition), who this time has made a romantic drama set in India, which takes a stand against caste system traditions. Both will be distributed in Brazil by Europa Filmes.

Two of the great Best Film Award finalists were successes at the 30th Festival, showing to sold-out houses: Babel, by Alejandro González Iñárritu, nominated in seven categories, and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, with five nominations. Also a triumph were the Festival’s screenings of Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver, which won Penelope Cruz a Best Actress nomination. An Inconvenient Truth, by David Guggenheim (with Al Gore) was nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Original Song (with “I Need to Wake Up”, by Melissa Etheridge).

Ryan Gosling, the young and gifted actor from The Believer, had his powerful acting acknowledged in Half Nelson and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Two movies about turn-of-the-century dueling magicians were nominated for the Achievement in Cinematography award: The Illusionist, with cinematography by Dick Pope and The Prestige, with cinematography by Wally Pfister. The latter also received a nomination for Achievement in Art Direction for art director Nathan Crowley and set decorator Julie Ochipinti. The illusion of magic is like the real allusion to photography. And to movies.

Photo gallery

El Laberinto Del Fauno, Days of Glory, An Inconvenient Truth and The Departed

O Labirinto do Fauno,