Building off of Parasite’s success, we see ambitious Oscar entries bloom

Satire-mysticism. Claustrophobic horror. Quirky fables…. These are not the things that previous International Feature Film nominees have evoked in the imagination. Building on the indisputable success of Parasite in the 2020 Oscar season, we’re finally seeing a flourishing of novel ideas and intriguing settings among the foreign film selection. BLAKE & WANG P.A takes a closer look. 

For 2021, we see the following 4 nominees:

• Never gonna snow again (Poland)
• Beginning (Georgia)
• Apples (Greece)
• Jallikattu (India)

This year, there is no theme or message to unite the four nominations, except possibly an urge to confound and dazzle their audiences. Let alone the need to find moralistic worth in the films nominated. Here we see films delighting in the weird and the wonderful, setting unlikely scenarios and abstract concepts off against absurd backgrounds and hints of mysticism. In short, they maintain staggering story-telling, deliciously thought-provoking ambiguity, and evocative cinematography, but there’s no art-house pretension to be seen. In fact, humor laces several of the entities. This is in noted contrast to the typically somber predecessors in the International Feature Film category.

For the most part, this can be chalked up to the previous season’s Oscar win for the exceptional South Korean film, Parasite. Parasite represented a genre-busting addition to the Oscar category sometimes called ‘the art house’ category, and in destroying the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable to put forward.

The approaching 2021 Oscar season is already one with many dark horses running. With the COVID-19 crisis keeping many big-ticket films off of our screens, it’s given smaller pictures and unique projects a chance to flourish. The International Film Feature category, in particular, has proven to be a fertile and imaginative selection unlike anything we’ve ever seen here before. It will be interesting to see how this trend develops over the next few years- but one thing is certain. Interesting viewing lies ahead!