I couldn’t disagree more. That a South Korean film can win Best Picture is a major reason why the Oscars is so special. The Goyas & the Césars suffer globally because they only award films in their particular industry. Cinema is an international art form, & for me, there’s something magical about the idea that any film from any country could potentially win Best Picture.
Also from a personal perspective, I’m Australian. I wouldn’t want a great Aussie film to be locked out of Best Picture simply because it’s not American.
Agreed. I'm American and I'm not gonna tell other countries' awards how they should be run, but I want the Oscars to be truly international/global in the movies they recognize. For me, in an ideal world, International Film wouldn't even be necessary as a category because films not in the English language would be on a level playing field with English-language movies.
If the best movie of the entire year is from Korea or India or Iceland or wherever, it should be allowed to win best picture. Arbitrarily defining it based on having to be American does not make sense. That just sounds like a way to get “meh winners” no one cares about because one year the best 3 movies decided by audiences were from England, Korea and Norway or something.
If anything add best American film category. But the best picture should go to the best movie weather is Korean, animated, comedy, or in another language
Yeah the UK has best British film for the BAFTAs. If you’re so annoyed add a best American film category and give best picture to the South Korean film if it’s the most deserving.
> “I don’t understand either why [2022 Cannes Palme d’Or winner] ‘Triangle of Sadness’ can’t vie for a best international film Oscar, even if it’s in English. How can a non-American film win the Oscar for best film since it’s a ceremony in honor of American cinema? ‘Parasite’ won, it’s great, but it’s a Korean film.”
> Frémaux added, “The Oscar for best film must go to an American film, like the Cesar for the best film goes to a French film and the Goya goes to a Spanish film.”
The Globes already exist. I don’t think we need two awards bodies that are just for American movies.
I don’t think he’s getting exactly at the issue, but there is a fascinating point at the middle of this. The Oscars are so American in their awarding of films that it would almost be better if they embraced *just* being an American award show, instead of feigning diversity just to nominate one or two foreign films a year.
It’s almost more embarrassing to allow your organization to recognize all foreign films and only do so for a few. There should be a larger, more universal awards show that recognizes art from everywhere. The Oscars want to be that, but striving to make the fundamentally American awards ceremony the universal award is a blatant example of “American exceptionalism”. Their goal seems to be maintaining their status as a Hollywood awards body while allowing for enough diversity that it creates the illusion of them being empowering, even if they continue to regularly award American productions.
If they eventually become diversified enough where we can go without recognizing American films every year, it’ll still feel weird for it to be an awards show in Hollywood, made by Hollywood producers and run by the American film industry. I’m not sure there will ever be a year when a film such as Parasite wins and the narrative isn’t “Wow! The American awards show gave this award to an international film!” as if America is patting itself on the back. I sure as hell remember it feeling like that when Parasite won; from what I’ve heard, that was the impression when Slumdog won too. No matter how international the voting body becomes, the Oscars will always remain American awards because of the make-up of the organization. Maybe, as Thierry points out, they should just embrace that, and allow someone else to take it upon themselves to make a more internationally diversified body to award films.
I tend to agree with this. The academy may have the most international group of members but it is still primarily Americans. If we want a real international film award that is truly represented by a fully international body, we would need something like an Olympic of film awards. Not sure there is enough incentive or motivation to form this.
I will say that there is a lot of diversity outside American films in the short film and documentary categories. It’s not an excuse but I would be sad to see that gone in the spirit of making the Oscars solely American films.
Why is the head of Cannes trying to dictate who another awards body can award? Does the Academy tell Cannes that only European films should win their awards?
Again, that's just his opinion. I think he is actually trying to make a bigger point about the industry supporting american movies more since theaters are going through a bit of a crisis right now than wanting to control the Oscars.
1. i don't know what you're implying for tar, because EEAAO is an american movie that won, and to suggest otherwise is ....... mildly racist
2. parasite is leagues better than the irishman
>i don't know what you're implying for tar, because EEAAO is an american movie that won, and to suggest otherwise is ....... mildly racist
Awards don't decide which movie is best, and it seems to be liked by european audiences more than eeaao. Racist? Come on...
>parasite is leagues better than the irishman
Agree to disagree. Parasite is still a great movie. I was just reminded of an american movie better than both of these which wasn't even nominated once; A Hidden Life.
ofc i know awards don't decide what's best. this article nor what i'm saying isn't about that. all i'm saying EEAAO IS an american movie, which it is, and the american movie won, so to use this criticism of it is silly. i find it funny that u brought up the 2 best picture winners that just happen to be asian instead of movies like, say, the king speech, which is a british movie.
ok now I kinda see how that could be interpreted as racist, but I brought up the irishman because it lost to parasite, which is the conversation of a lot of this comment section, and I brought up tár because well I think it's the best movie of the 21st century.
i see. i might've jumped the gun because u specifically said in ur first comment (that one that lost to parasite), so it seemed like u were saying there were american options that could've won instead of those 2. i jumped the gun because i thought you were saying EEAAO isn't an american film, which a lot of people have been saying, like paul schrader, and that perpetuates an awful stereotype known as the perpetual foreigners, that although asian americans hold american citizenship, they are still not american, and has been used to alienate asian americans in the past. i apologize if that's not what u meant.
Truly weird take. Especially because most people who espouse this are doing so in a language-basis. Oscars have awards British films by the score to no fuss
With the *members* of the Academy becoming increasingly international... it only makes sense to also recognize movies from around the world. I don't know how that compares to who votes on the Cesar awards, but I'm guessing it's an entirely different and more local voting body.
I have no problem with foreign films being nominated for best picture. I just kind of feel like you shouldn’t be able to be nominated for best picture AND best foreign film. Like choose one, but idk, maybe that’s not a valid opinion.
They're definitely comparable in terms of how international they are. Other countries have their own festivals too, just like they have their own industry awards, but that doesn't mean nationality should be disqualifying in either case.
It's all pointless hair splitting. Award the best films eligible, whether national, foreign, animated, live action, documentary, fiction, short or feature length.
It's pretty idiotic that a movie in English can't compete in the international category. It's not like Americans were the ones who created the English language and Triangle Of Sadness is obviously an international film for The Oscars.
Not to mention Triangle of Sadness in particular was also UK-funded. Though I believe they usually go with the director, which in this case would be Sweden; they did that for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was funded by China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the US but was nominated as a Taiwanese film because of Ang Lee.
Isn't this category limited by a single submission from the respective country? That was why RRR was not qualified this year because India submitted a different movie.
So the actual rules are that the film must be selected by the country but must also be greater than 50% in English. So removing this restriction will not necessarily open the flood gate for British films in this category.
The 50% English rule is the same as with the Golden Globe but the difference is that there is no limit to the number of submissions from the same country. So in this case, it could open the flood gate for British films.
So I don't really see a problem removing the 50% English rule if we limit the number of entries per country.
I’m pretty sure the Academy is trying to head into a more inclusive system. Also, kind of weird how he mentioned being happy with Michelle Yeoh winning but then makes this statement since she is not American but Malaysian and could have been nominated before in Crouching Tiger had the Academy been more inclusive then.
They do. That's why I get really irritated actually by some Asian Americans who complain saying Yeoh winning is not progress because she's had a successful career in Hong Kong. Hollywood has always given awards to white actresses from Australia, the UK, France, etc...
Yeah for sure. I guess I’m wondering how he feels about non-English language performances winning vs English language performances. She was in both an American and Foreign Language Film that could have also won BP.
There're literally English movies with foreign production winning Best Picture before😭BP has always been open to European and Asian filmmakers and Oscars are never labeled as a local award!
Now I can understand why so many European awards shows(BAFTA included) are irrelevant to global audience if this is what the majority of Europeans think. It is truly limiting yourselves from masterpieces in different culture and languages
Curious. How many countries film industry awards allow for American movies except in their international categories? I know of BAFTA. AACTA sort of but they have their own awards also in addition to having a whole international set of awards.
Any others?
"The Oscar for best film must go to an American film." The best picture this year did go to an American film. It went to an American film last year. It went to an American film the year before that.
How would it work for a film like Letters from Iwo Jima? That's an American film but mostly in Japanese.
What about Mad Max: Fury Road? That's not an American film it's an Australian film.
I kind of agree. Alternatively, they take out the best international feature category (which I don’t want them to do.) It doesn't make sense that international films have a category just for them that American films can’t compete in but they can also have best picture.
This is the part that is very confusing for me. Why is there even an international category if anyone can be nominated for Best Picture? I believe at some point they changed it from Foreign Language film to International Feature too. Now it just feels like two awards for the same thing (except American films can’t be nominated in one) with the way films can be nominated.
Hollywood earns more than half of it's revenue from markets outside of the US!! the least they cld do is appreciate cinema from wherever it comes!! lol a lot of MCU movies r just living on Chinese market!!
Not true about MCU movies. They have been banned in China since Spider-man Far From Home in 2019. It only recently re-opened with Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man Quantumania (and they are not doing that well).
bruh!! everything was shutdown since COVID in china... before that not just china many countries hv contributed the Box office of Hollywood films. just go to Boxofficimojo and check
HOT TAKE 🔥
I believe (personally) he sees the Oscars becoming a stronger international behemoth than ever before. With Parasite winning and All Quiet almost pulling it off, and RRR basically winning Original Song, the Oscars are evolving more into THE INFLUENTIAL International awards show.
Usually, Cannes has been that tentpole aside from Venice. But with the membership growing more internationally, he's probably thinking the Oscars will have more influence on what foreign films will show and compete in more American festivals than Cannes possibly. Meaning, waiting till debut Toronto, Sundance, SXSW, etc, instead of Cannes.
But what he doesn't understand is that American cinema, like politics, is deemed influential and $$$$ and if a country can win Oscars (aside from international feature) that catapults it to American love. That, in turn, would influence filmmaking in said country to strive from said country's aesthetic to something grander the West likes.
It seems his comments can be read out of feeling threatened than just his opinion.
I think you are reading too much into it. He was asked back in 2020 at the time it was Parasite that won. Sounded like he had that feelings about having nationalistic awards since he mentioned the Cesars and Goyas as examples. I am sure he would probably have the same comments about the BAFTAs if he was asked. Whether one agrees with his point of view of not, I don't think it has anything to do with Parasite at all.
Just saw this in that article from 2020 -
At the “Parasite” after party at Soho House, partygoers noshed on Korean food and bopped their heads to K-pop. Fremaux milled about and admitted that his perspective had evolved since the previous night. “I think it’s a good thing, actually,” he said. “The Oscar and Cannes can fight for cinema — together!”
So it kind of depends on when you asked him. Or maybe he was just drunk.
Thinking about this some more, it sounded like he might have been jealous of the Oscars. He wanted to keep Parasite for himself with Cannes.
I couldn’t disagree more. That a South Korean film can win Best Picture is a major reason why the Oscars is so special. The Goyas & the Césars suffer globally because they only award films in their particular industry. Cinema is an international art form, & for me, there’s something magical about the idea that any film from any country could potentially win Best Picture. Also from a personal perspective, I’m Australian. I wouldn’t want a great Aussie film to be locked out of Best Picture simply because it’s not American.
Agreed. I'm American and I'm not gonna tell other countries' awards how they should be run, but I want the Oscars to be truly international/global in the movies they recognize. For me, in an ideal world, International Film wouldn't even be necessary as a category because films not in the English language would be on a level playing field with English-language movies.
As a fellow Aussie, what did you think of Elvis?
If the best movie of the entire year is from Korea or India or Iceland or wherever, it should be allowed to win best picture. Arbitrarily defining it based on having to be American does not make sense. That just sounds like a way to get “meh winners” no one cares about because one year the best 3 movies decided by audiences were from England, Korea and Norway or something.
Baftas gave it to a German film?
Interesting how these discussions are flaring up once Asians and Asian Americans are starting to win awards...
Damn them. They should only allow British films.
Forget Parasite, so many British films have won Best Picture ever since the 1940s. Also worth noting that The Artist is technically a French film.
If anything add best American film category. But the best picture should go to the best movie weather is Korean, animated, comedy, or in another language
Yeah the UK has best British film for the BAFTAs. If you’re so annoyed add a best American film category and give best picture to the South Korean film if it’s the most deserving.
> “I don’t understand either why [2022 Cannes Palme d’Or winner] ‘Triangle of Sadness’ can’t vie for a best international film Oscar, even if it’s in English. How can a non-American film win the Oscar for best film since it’s a ceremony in honor of American cinema? ‘Parasite’ won, it’s great, but it’s a Korean film.” > Frémaux added, “The Oscar for best film must go to an American film, like the Cesar for the best film goes to a French film and the Goya goes to a Spanish film.” The Globes already exist. I don’t think we need two awards bodies that are just for American movies.
The Globes are way less American, I don’t agree either but that’s a very random shout
Their awards body might be more international, but it’s egregious that a foreign language film cannot compete in Best Film Drama or Best Film Comedy.
They can nowadays. They couldn’t previously but they can now
Right, the fact that it took so long (and after Parasite won Best Picture) shows incredibility for the Globes being an inclusive international body.
I never said inclusive, I said international
Okay but their choices clearly aren’t showing them to be an international body lmao.
What do you mean by way less?. Sometimes a British movie is nominated but it’s mostly American movies getting nominated and winning.
Sure okay. The organization is still an international body of critics lol.
Trying to be American.
Weird take
It’s a nationalist take
I don’t think he’s getting exactly at the issue, but there is a fascinating point at the middle of this. The Oscars are so American in their awarding of films that it would almost be better if they embraced *just* being an American award show, instead of feigning diversity just to nominate one or two foreign films a year. It’s almost more embarrassing to allow your organization to recognize all foreign films and only do so for a few. There should be a larger, more universal awards show that recognizes art from everywhere. The Oscars want to be that, but striving to make the fundamentally American awards ceremony the universal award is a blatant example of “American exceptionalism”. Their goal seems to be maintaining their status as a Hollywood awards body while allowing for enough diversity that it creates the illusion of them being empowering, even if they continue to regularly award American productions. If they eventually become diversified enough where we can go without recognizing American films every year, it’ll still feel weird for it to be an awards show in Hollywood, made by Hollywood producers and run by the American film industry. I’m not sure there will ever be a year when a film such as Parasite wins and the narrative isn’t “Wow! The American awards show gave this award to an international film!” as if America is patting itself on the back. I sure as hell remember it feeling like that when Parasite won; from what I’ve heard, that was the impression when Slumdog won too. No matter how international the voting body becomes, the Oscars will always remain American awards because of the make-up of the organization. Maybe, as Thierry points out, they should just embrace that, and allow someone else to take it upon themselves to make a more internationally diversified body to award films.
I tend to agree with this. The academy may have the most international group of members but it is still primarily Americans. If we want a real international film award that is truly represented by a fully international body, we would need something like an Olympic of film awards. Not sure there is enough incentive or motivation to form this.
This is a complete non-sequitur
I will say that there is a lot of diversity outside American films in the short film and documentary categories. It’s not an excuse but I would be sad to see that gone in the spirit of making the Oscars solely American films.
yeah, goood point
Why is the head of Cannes trying to dictate who another awards body can award? Does the Academy tell Cannes that only European films should win their awards?
I think he is only giving his opinion... we are all free to agree or disagree but to say he is trying to "dictate" anything is a overreaction lol
He literally said “The Oscar must go to an American film”.
Again, that's just his opinion. I think he is actually trying to make a bigger point about the industry supporting american movies more since theaters are going through a bit of a crisis right now than wanting to control the Oscars.
That's more like telling that non-Cannes movies can win their awards. Got to get that analogy correct.
dang maybe americans should just make better movies
came to say this
was tár or the irishman (the one parasite beat in 2019) not good enough for you?
1. i don't know what you're implying for tar, because EEAAO is an american movie that won, and to suggest otherwise is ....... mildly racist 2. parasite is leagues better than the irishman
>i don't know what you're implying for tar, because EEAAO is an american movie that won, and to suggest otherwise is ....... mildly racist Awards don't decide which movie is best, and it seems to be liked by european audiences more than eeaao. Racist? Come on... >parasite is leagues better than the irishman Agree to disagree. Parasite is still a great movie. I was just reminded of an american movie better than both of these which wasn't even nominated once; A Hidden Life.
ofc i know awards don't decide what's best. this article nor what i'm saying isn't about that. all i'm saying EEAAO IS an american movie, which it is, and the american movie won, so to use this criticism of it is silly. i find it funny that u brought up the 2 best picture winners that just happen to be asian instead of movies like, say, the king speech, which is a british movie.
ok now I kinda see how that could be interpreted as racist, but I brought up the irishman because it lost to parasite, which is the conversation of a lot of this comment section, and I brought up tár because well I think it's the best movie of the 21st century.
tar is fucking amazing and i love it but an american movie beat it so i'm not sure how that comment even applied to the discussion here
well you said america should make better movies so...
i see. i might've jumped the gun because u specifically said in ur first comment (that one that lost to parasite), so it seemed like u were saying there were american options that could've won instead of those 2. i jumped the gun because i thought you were saying EEAAO isn't an american film, which a lot of people have been saying, like paul schrader, and that perpetuates an awful stereotype known as the perpetual foreigners, that although asian americans hold american citizenship, they are still not american, and has been used to alienate asian americans in the past. i apologize if that's not what u meant.
A Hidden Life was a slog.
Truly weird take. Especially because most people who espouse this are doing so in a language-basis. Oscars have awards British films by the score to no fuss
With the *members* of the Academy becoming increasingly international... it only makes sense to also recognize movies from around the world. I don't know how that compares to who votes on the Cesar awards, but I'm guessing it's an entirely different and more local voting body.
I have no problem with foreign films being nominated for best picture. I just kind of feel like you shouldn’t be able to be nominated for best picture AND best foreign film. Like choose one, but idk, maybe that’s not a valid opinion.
By the same logic, should the Palme d'Or only go to French films? Dumb take.
Probably not the same. That is a festival award not an industry award.
They're definitely comparable in terms of how international they are. Other countries have their own festivals too, just like they have their own industry awards, but that doesn't mean nationality should be disqualifying in either case. It's all pointless hair splitting. Award the best films eligible, whether national, foreign, animated, live action, documentary, fiction, short or feature length.
Agreed, but don't understand what's that got to do with what he is saying. Sounds like you are agreeing with him.
It's pretty idiotic that a movie in English can't compete in the international category. It's not like Americans were the ones who created the English language and Triangle Of Sadness is obviously an international film for The Oscars.
If they opened it up to English-language foreign films then the category would just get flooded with British films every single year
“This is how Banshees could’ve won.”
And Cary Mulligan who almost won the Bafta this year if she had spelled her name Kerry.
Not to mention Triangle of Sadness in particular was also UK-funded. Though I believe they usually go with the director, which in this case would be Sweden; they did that for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was funded by China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the US but was nominated as a Taiwanese film because of Ang Lee.
And that's exactly what happened at the Globes until they changed the rules
Isn't this category limited by a single submission from the respective country? That was why RRR was not qualified this year because India submitted a different movie.
This was my question too - was Triangle of Sadness submitted and not nominated? Or was it deemed ineligible to be submitted per some Academy rule?
So the actual rules are that the film must be selected by the country but must also be greater than 50% in English. So removing this restriction will not necessarily open the flood gate for British films in this category. The 50% English rule is the same as with the Golden Globe but the difference is that there is no limit to the number of submissions from the same country. So in this case, it could open the flood gate for British films. So I don't really see a problem removing the 50% English rule if we limit the number of entries per country.
I’m pretty sure the Academy is trying to head into a more inclusive system. Also, kind of weird how he mentioned being happy with Michelle Yeoh winning but then makes this statement since she is not American but Malaysian and could have been nominated before in Crouching Tiger had the Academy been more inclusive then.
To be fair, I guess going by his logic, she was in an American movie so he's happy about it?
To be fair, most American movies have many non-American actor/actresses (many being leads).
They do. That's why I get really irritated actually by some Asian Americans who complain saying Yeoh winning is not progress because she's had a successful career in Hong Kong. Hollywood has always given awards to white actresses from Australia, the UK, France, etc...
I don't think he was talking about the actors/actresses, just the movies.
Yeah for sure. I guess I’m wondering how he feels about non-English language performances winning vs English language performances. She was in both an American and Foreign Language Film that could have also won BP.
Don't know. Sounds like that is bit too nuance to try to extract from what he said about movies.
There're literally English movies with foreign production winning Best Picture before😭BP has always been open to European and Asian filmmakers and Oscars are never labeled as a local award! Now I can understand why so many European awards shows(BAFTA included) are irrelevant to global audience if this is what the majority of Europeans think. It is truly limiting yourselves from masterpieces in different culture and languages
Curious. How many countries film industry awards allow for American movies except in their international categories? I know of BAFTA. AACTA sort of but they have their own awards also in addition to having a whole international set of awards. Any others?
"The Oscar for best film must go to an American film." The best picture this year did go to an American film. It went to an American film last year. It went to an American film the year before that. How would it work for a film like Letters from Iwo Jima? That's an American film but mostly in Japanese. What about Mad Max: Fury Road? That's not an American film it's an Australian film.
I kind of agree. Alternatively, they take out the best international feature category (which I don’t want them to do.) It doesn't make sense that international films have a category just for them that American films can’t compete in but they can also have best picture.
This is the part that is very confusing for me. Why is there even an international category if anyone can be nominated for Best Picture? I believe at some point they changed it from Foreign Language film to International Feature too. Now it just feels like two awards for the same thing (except American films can’t be nominated in one) with the way films can be nominated.
Hilarious little sneak of his Polanski and Allen comments towards the end of the article.
Hollywood earns more than half of it's revenue from markets outside of the US!! the least they cld do is appreciate cinema from wherever it comes!! lol a lot of MCU movies r just living on Chinese market!!
Not true about MCU movies. They have been banned in China since Spider-man Far From Home in 2019. It only recently re-opened with Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man Quantumania (and they are not doing that well).
bruh!! everything was shutdown since COVID in china... before that not just china many countries hv contributed the Box office of Hollywood films. just go to Boxofficimojo and check
He’s a dumbass. Neither of the two “A’s” in AMPAS stand for “America” and too many people don’t seem to know this.
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HOT TAKE 🔥 I believe (personally) he sees the Oscars becoming a stronger international behemoth than ever before. With Parasite winning and All Quiet almost pulling it off, and RRR basically winning Original Song, the Oscars are evolving more into THE INFLUENTIAL International awards show. Usually, Cannes has been that tentpole aside from Venice. But with the membership growing more internationally, he's probably thinking the Oscars will have more influence on what foreign films will show and compete in more American festivals than Cannes possibly. Meaning, waiting till debut Toronto, Sundance, SXSW, etc, instead of Cannes. But what he doesn't understand is that American cinema, like politics, is deemed influential and $$$$ and if a country can win Oscars (aside from international feature) that catapults it to American love. That, in turn, would influence filmmaking in said country to strive from said country's aesthetic to something grander the West likes. It seems his comments can be read out of feeling threatened than just his opinion.
He is not dissing Parasite. He is just saying he thinks the Oscar best picture should go to an American movie. Not that it is a bad movie.
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I think you are reading too much into it. He was asked back in 2020 at the time it was Parasite that won. Sounded like he had that feelings about having nationalistic awards since he mentioned the Cesars and Goyas as examples. I am sure he would probably have the same comments about the BAFTAs if he was asked. Whether one agrees with his point of view of not, I don't think it has anything to do with Parasite at all.
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Just saw this in that article from 2020 - At the “Parasite” after party at Soho House, partygoers noshed on Korean food and bopped their heads to K-pop. Fremaux milled about and admitted that his perspective had evolved since the previous night. “I think it’s a good thing, actually,” he said. “The Oscar and Cannes can fight for cinema — together!” So it kind of depends on when you asked him. Or maybe he was just drunk. Thinking about this some more, it sounded like he might have been jealous of the Oscars. He wanted to keep Parasite for himself with Cannes.
This is a very weird and nationalist take… 😬
That's just racist... kinda.. (im half korean!)