Broken English

Maybe they should've thrown in some pig Latin.

Israeli writer-director Eran Kolirin talks about his award-winning dramedy "The Band's Visit" with THR's Martin Grove and why it's not a contender for either the Oscar or Golden Globe for best foreign language film.

It's just not foreign enough.

The Academy's rules, called Byzantine by some industry veterans, say that entries must be non-American-made and not in English to qualify. Kolirin said some people connected with "A Band's Visit" considered trying to reason with the rules committee.

"I know we tried -- not me personally, but the production tried to appeal. You know, it's very funny because the movie's 85 minutes and, if I'm not mistaken, it has 18 minutes in Arabic and Hebrew and 22 minutes in English and the rest is just images and silences. People don't really talk a lot in the movie.

I told them that we should say the silences in the movie are in Arabic."

The Sony Pictures Classic release has been on a roll, winning three prizes at Cannes, sweeping the Israeli Film Academy awards and nabbing best actor at the European Film Awards. Made for a tiny $750,000 in 23 days, the film shows what happens when an Egyptian orchestra gets lost (and found) in Israel.

"The Band's Visit" isn't the only movie to butt heads with the Academy this year. Ang Lee's nookie-fest "Lust, Caution" was deemed not Taiwanese enough to compete for a foreign language Oscar.

In light of the controversy, Lee has decided to film his next movie entirely in Elvish, with Kolirin opting for all-Klingon-all-the-time.