Global

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As representatives of press outlets from more than 50 countries worldwide, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press have always attached great value to the Foreign Film category. Not only are non-English language movies indicative of the intrinsically international nature of the film business and examples of global excellence, they are also windows into humanity in all its facets and idioms, contributing, as only art can, to further understanding between all people.

Two years ago, with his widely lauded A Separation, writer-director Asghar Farhadi announced the arrival of a new wave of Iranian cinema: intimate and complex, exquisitely sculpted with the emphasis on family and relationships. Farhadi’s film gave us a glimpse into modern Iranian society, and some of us may have been surprised to find that Iranians are a people with much the same issues and problems that we all have to deal with.

One of the most flourishing cinema industries found today is in India. But the pioneers of the industry were actually foreigners.

Among the five films nominated in the Best Foreign Language category, The Hunt from Denmark is easily the darkest. It introduces us to a cast of sympathetic characters leading normal lives in a rural Danish town and then takes us on an unsettling journey as the community is torn apart by doubt and suspicion.

There is perhaps no other movie that merits a Golden Globe nomination more than Blue is the Warmest Color. The French film began garnering accolades at the Cannes Film festival, where it was awarded the prestigious Palme D’or.

It’s difficult to imagine a time when Bob Dylan did not exist as a musician, much less when he did not dominate the New York folk scene, as hinted at so exquisitely at the ending of the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. But the fact is that before Dylan became famous and swept all before him, including Dave Van Ronk, he was a huge fan of the Irish folk group the Clancy Brothers, who also did things on their own terms with a huge degree of success.

The beauty of Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty, the Golden Globe nominee which also just made the Foreign Language Oscar short list, is that everyone, whether cinephile, regular moviegoer or film critic, has his or her own opinion about the film. And when it comes to this Italian entry there are apparently few half-measures.

The short list for the Foreign Language Oscar category released today includes entries from nine countries: Belgium, Bosnia, Cambodia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy and Palestine. Only two of those (the Italian and Danish films) are also represented in the five nominees for a Foreign Language Golden Globe.

“I am a little embarrassed to say… but without love, life is not worth living. ”This was Hayao Miyazaki’s answer to the question, “What does love mean to you?” in 2008, when the American version of Ponyo was released.