International Oscar Race: Taiwan Submits ‘Old Fox’

Taiwan has selected multi-award-winning drama film “Old Fox” as its representative in the best international feature category of the 97th Academy Awards. The island’s Ministry of Culture says that it selected “Old Fox” from 14 candidate films.

Directed by Hsiao Ya-chuan, the film tells the morally-conflicted tale of an 11-year-old boy from a modest background. He is torn between the hardscrabble and penny-pinching life of his single-parent father and the allure of a neighborhood landlord, who offers riches and lessons in streetwise pragmatism.

The central performances of child star Bai Run-jin (who previously appeared in “Dear Tennant”) and writer-actor Akio Chen elevate the triangular relationship into a prize-winning effort. The picture had its premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival before becoming the numerical winner at Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Film Awards the following month. While it missed out on the best film prize, “Old Fox” collected four prizes including best director and best supporting actor for Chen.

The 97th Academy Awards will take place on March 2. The Oscars shortlists will be announced on Dec. 17, and nominations will be revealed on Jan. 17. The submission deadline for the International Feature Film category is Oct. 2. The eligibility period for the category is Nov. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024.

Latvia: ‘Flow’

Latvia has selected Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” as its entry in the best international feature category of the 97th Academy Awards. The animated feature had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival and won four prizes at Annecy.

Sideshow and Janus Films acquired North American rights to the film out of Cannes and are planning a theatrical release this year.

At Annecy, “Flow” won the Audience Award, the Jury Award, the special prize for original music and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. It will also screen at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

“Flow” follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet.

The film was co-written by Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza, with a score by Zilbalodis and Rihards Zalupe. It was produced by Zilbalodis and Kaza, alongside Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The international sales agent is Charades.

Zilbalodis’ “Away” won the Contrechamp Award for Best Film at Annecy in 2019.

Latvia’s selection was made by the Latvian Selection Committee, a commission of film industry experts established by the National Film Center.

Austria: ‘The Devil’s Bath’

“The Devil’s Bath,” a period psychological thriller which competed at the Berlin Film Festival, has been submitted by Austria as its official Oscar entry for the international feature film race. The film picked up the Silver Bear for best cinematography (for Martin Gschlacht) at the Berlinale.

The film is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy,” which bowed at Venice and also represented Austria in the Oscar race.

Set in rural Austria in 1750, the film centres on Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotion and limited to chores and expectations. A pious and highly sensitive woman, Agnes falls into a deep depression, before committing a shocking act of violence that she sees as the only way out of her inner prison.

The movie is being handled by Shudder in North America. The streamer also picked it up for the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It’s been sold around the world by Playtime.

“The Devil’s Bath” was produced by Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion, in co-production with Heimatfilm and Coop99 Filmproduktion.

Ireland: ‘Kneecap’

Ireland has submitted “Kneecap” to represent the country in the Oscars international feature film category.

The film became a sensation in Sundance, where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, and has been amassing plaudits at festivals around the world over the last few months.

From writer-director Rich Peppiatt, “Kneecap” is a raucous semi-autobiographical comedy about the wildly outspoken and hard-partying Northern Irish hip-hop trio of the same name.

“Kneecap” was produced by Trevor Birney and Jack Tarling for Fine Point Films and Mother Tongues Films, with Patrick O’Neill at Wildcard acting as co-producer.