The 2022 Oscars preselection: A cinematic world tour | The Tunisian Press

15 films in preselection in the best foreign language film category, already unveiled, pending the 94^e Academy Awards, scheduled for March 27, 2022.

On December 21, the list of the fifteen films shortlisted for the 2022 Oscars ceremony in the best foreign language film category was unveiled.

But we would have to wait another three months before the 94^e Oscars ceremony. Because the rewards will indeed be given on Sunday March 27, 2022. A date set back in the calendar so as not to interfere with the Winter Olympics (February 4 to 20, 2022), in Beijing, which will be followed by the Paralympic Games, (March 4 to 13, 2022).

The Academy of Oscars has, however, planned to announce the list of nominees in full competition: Tuesday February 8, 2022. In the meantime, here are the fifteen films shortlisted in the category best foreign language film.

Great Freedom, by Austrian director Sebastian Meise, is an impressive dramatic film in which Franz Rogowski excels as a man jailed for homosexuality in post-war Germany. Great Freedom is a work that rests on the balance of a large number of themes and elements.

It explores post-war German history, homosexual life before its decriminalization, and how the deadly logic of incarceration creates a mental prison, so much so that an actual prison becomes questionable.

A world, by Belgian director Laura Wandel, explores the problem of bullying at school, “Un monde” caused a sensation when it was presented in July at the Cannes Film Festival. Rewarded on the Croisette of the Fipresci Prize for international film critics in the section “Un Certain Regard”, focusing on emerging filmmakers, the feature film was also awarded last October the prize for Best First Film at the Festival du film de London (BFI).

The school at the end of the world, by Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji, is a difficult film to categorize. A drama yes, perhaps, but then intended for all and which is good. Enough to disabuse all those who have negative prejudices about so-called “world” cinema. The story is classic in its form, it is of great depth, not devoid of humor, and deeply beautiful. All the more so when we know that the film was shot on the scene of the action, with non-professional actors, in particular the children, who really live in Lunana and in its hostile surroundings, where life is however only smiles and generosity.

Flee, by Danish director Jonas Poher Ramussen, is a film made mainly with remarkable animated images, Flee takes us on the journey of a refugee from Afghanistan to Denmark. Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells Amin’s story in the form of a realistic cartoon in which he incorporates archival footage. If the animation allows you to enter the intimacy of the main protagonist, it also allows a healthy distance from the horrors that the film tells while the archival footage filmed in Russia or Afghanistan shows misery and death in such a way. flood.

Compartment No.6, by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen. Endowed with a devastating humor that is never the enemy of depth and delicacy, Juho Kuosmanen, well helped in his noble task by his two remarkable actors (Seidi Haarla and Yuriy Borisov), leads his story to a train from hell. The story of a love story as unusual as it is moving, which at all times avoids the traps of psychologism and sentimentalism.

I’m Your Man, by German director Maria Schrader, is a romance with a hint of comedy and anticipation.

This is the new feature film from German director Maria Schrader, who recently directed Netflix’s hit miniseries Unorthodox. In addition to its rather original and attractive pitch, the success of this 3^e Maria Schrader’s feature film is due to its rather polished aesthetic, to the false airs of futuristic film with clear and refined settings.

Lamb, first film by Icelandic director Valdimar Jóhannsson.

This work seems to have been created as a Cinematographic experience, a mythological tale, for an imaginative Cinema, something curious, to no longer know whether to laugh about it, or to let yourself be carried away by the remarkable and mysterious interpretation of Noomi Rapace Belle, in a sad light, decorated by these vast meadows, this wild nature that is Iceland, where words disappear in the fog of a monotonous daily life, to the harshness of a couple’s effort …

A hero by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.

The director of “A Separation” signs his return to the screens with “A Hero”, a masterful film about a desperate Iranian who was honored with a Grand Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival. This fiction confirms the talent of a director who observes the realities of his country with a subtle and ambiguous gaze.

God’s hand, by the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino who signs, with enthusiasm and exaltation, a work where his characters are filmed like so many dreams, hopes, in the middle of luxurious sets, marvelous landscapes and divine atmospheres.

Drive My Car, by Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi. Screenplay Prize at Cannes 2021, this film is more like a social cinema à la Ozu, an epic – close to the road trip or the quest for identity. A film with a human face, the chronicle of a man first, then another, a woman, two women and then a small band of Japanese, Korean and Chinese actors. A motley troop that gathers in Hiroshima.

Hive, by Kosovar director Blerta Basholli. Inspired by real events, this first feature film, which just made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of a provincial woman living in a small town who finds herself confronted with the prejudice and uncertainty as she tries to empower women in her community to take charge of their own destiny.

Prayers for the Stolen, by Mexican director Tatiana Huezo, is a film that highlights the women of a small Mexican village plagued by cartels and corruption. The director is betting on simplicity. Only love and the transmission of knowledge seem to be able to bring the protagonists out of the abyss of violence.

Julie in twelve chapters, by Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The film resonates in power through the trajectory of an indecisive young woman, Joachim Trier offers a deep reflection on love, the life of a couple, filiation, the relationship to culture, but also on the passage of time and missed aspirations. He does this thanks to an inventive staging — which offers itself, at the center of the film, a dreamlike pivotal sequence of great poetry — but also a very personal tone, which mixes seriousness and humor, lightness and sensitivity, romanticism and rawness.

Plaza Catedral, by Panamanian director Abner Benaim, is a film that tells the story of Alicia, a woman who, after having had a perfect life, suffers the tragic death of her son; her pain is riddled with guilt, a guilt that has led her to dissociate herself from society, from married life and from herself. Until she meets “Chief”, a boy who takes care of cars in front of his apartment in Plaza Catedral in old Panama City and who manages to reverse his current reality. This is the first time that a Panamanian film has reached the semi-finals of the Oscars.

The Good Boss, by Spanish director León de Aranoa, is a film that works like a perfect comedic machine, black and caustic, savage and critical with this world in which we are exploited. This is indeed his magic, his tone and his power: in the criticism he formulates against the unethical mechanisms of neoliberalism, with his servants and his hierarchy, provoking torrents of laughter thanks to sublime dialogues.