'The Class,' 'Bashir' but not 'Gomorrah'

 

What, no "Gomorrah?"

Expect the bellyaching about the foreign language film race, and the new-and-not-so-improved rules, to continue this year as the Italian mafia tale, based on the best-selling book by Roberto Saviano, was left off the list of nine Oscar finalists released today.

Kris Tapley at awards blog InContention: Tell us how you really feel about the folks at the Academy who call this race. (Hint: The words "vile" and "bozo" came up).

Here are the contenders for the five nominations, to be announced Jan. 22 with all the other nods: "The Class," from Laurent Cantet, France; "Waltz with Bashir," Israel; Austria's "Revanche," directed by Gotz Spielmann; Canada's "The Necessities of Life" (Benoit Pilon); Germany's "The Baader Meinhof Complex" (Uli Edel); Japan's "Departures" (Yojiro Takita); Mexico's "Tear This Heart Out" (Roberto Sneider); Sweden's "Everlasting Moments" (from previous Oscar nominee Jan Troell); and Turkey's "3 Monkeys" (Nuri Bilge Ceylon).

All the heat at the moment is around the Israeli animation/memoir hybrid "Bashir," which just picked up a Golden Globe, but it could very well be a two-horse race, considering the multi-culti Cannes Palm d'Or winner "The Class" remains a critical darling.

More details here.