We published the last one a few weeks ago, and not much has happened since. But I came across this one which really striked my interest: this year, 67 films are in the running for the Best Foreign Film. This is a RECORD. Here are all of the considered movies below (courtesy of ComingSoon.net):


Afghanistan, "Opium War," Siddiq Barmak, director;
Albania, "The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider," Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani, directors;
Algeria, "Masquerades," Lyes Salem, director;
Argentina, "Lion's Den," Pablo Trapero, director;
Austria, "Revanche," Gotz Spielmann, director;
Azerbaijan, "Fortress," Shamil Nacafzada, director;
Bangladesh, "Aha!," Enamul Karim Nirjhar, director;
Belgium, "Eldorado," Bouli Lanners, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Snow," Aida Begic, director;
Brazil, "Last Stop 174," Bruno Barreto, director;
Bulgaria, "Zift," Javor Gardev, director;
Canada, "The Necessities of Life," Benoit Pilon, director;
Chile, "Tony Manero," Pablo Larrain, director;
China, "Dream Weavers," Jun Gu, director;
Colombia, "Dog Eat Dog," Carlos Moreno, director;
Croatia, "No One's Son," Arsen Anton Ostojic, director;
Czech Republic, "The Karamazovs," Petr Zelenka, director;
Denmark, "Worlds Apart," Niels Arden Oplev, director;
Egypt, "The Island," Sherif Arafa, director;
Estonia, "I Was Here," Rene Vilbre, director;
Finland, "The Home of Dark Butterflies," Dome Karukoski, director;
France, "The Class," Laurent Cantet, director;
Georgia, "Mediator," Dito Tsintsadze, director;
Germany, "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Uli Edel, director;
Greece, "Correction," Thanos Anastopoulos, director;
Hong Kong, "Painted Skin," Gordon Chan, director;
Hungary, "Iska's Journey," Csaba Bollok, director;
Iceland, "White Night Wedding," Baltasar Kormakur, director;
India, "Taare Zameen Par," Aamir Khan, director;
Iran, "The Song of Sparrows," Majid Majidi, director;
Israel, "Waltz with Bashir," Ari Folman, director;
Italy, "Gomorra," Matteo Garrone, director;
Japan, "Departures," Yojiro Takita, director;
Jordan, "Captain Abu Raed," Amin Matalqa, director;
Kazakhstan, "Tulpan," Sergey Dvortsevoy, director;
Korea, "Crossing," Tae-kyun Kim, director;
Kyrgyzstan, "Heavens Blue," Marie Jaoul de Poncheville, director;
Latvia, "Defenders of Riga," Aigars Grauba, director;
Lebanon, "Under the Bombs," Philippe Aractingi, director;
Lithuania, "Loss," Maris Martinsons, director;
Luxembourg, "Nuits d'Arabie," Paul Kieffer, director;
Macedonia, "I'm from Titov Veles," Teona Strugar Mitevska, director;
Mexico, "Tear This Heart Out," Roberto Sneider, director;
Morocco, "Goodbye Mothers," Mohamed Ismail, director;
The Netherlands, "Dunya & Desie," Dana Nechushtan, director;
Norway, "O'Horten," Bent Hamer, director;
Palestine, "Salt of This Sea" Annemarie Jacir, director;
Philippines, "Ploning," Dante Nico Garcia, director;
Poland, "Tricks," Andrzej Jakimowski, director;
Portugal, "Our Beloved Month of August," Miguel Gomes, director;
Romania, "The Rest Is Silence," Nae Caranfil, director;
Russia, "Mermaid," Anna Melikyan, director;
Serbia, "The Tour," Goran Markovic, director;
Singapore, "My Magic," Eric Khoo, director;
Slovakia, "Blind Loves," Juraj Lehotsky, director;
Slovenia, "Rooster's Breakfast," Marko Nabersnik, director;
South Africa, "Jerusalema," Ralph Ziman, director;
Spain, "The Blind Sunflowers," Jose Luis Cuerda, director;
Sweden, "Everlasting Moments," Jan Troell, director;
Switzerland, "The Friend," Micha Lewinsky, director;
Taiwan, "Cape No. 7," Te-Sheng Wei, director;
Thailand, "Love of Siam," Chookiat Sakveerakul, director;
Turkey, "3 Monkeys," Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
Ukraine, "Illusion of Fear," Aleksandr Kiriyenko, director;
United Kingdom, "Hope Eternal," Karl Francis, director;
Uruguay, "Kill Them All," Esteban Schroeder, director;
Venezuela, "The Color of Fame," Alejandro Bellame Palacios, director.

I recognized a few of those films - the winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "The Class;" "O'Horten;" and "Waltz of Bashir." I'm surprised that the Swedish horror film "Let the Right One In" wasn't picked for their nominated film, but I hear that "Everlasting Moments" has some... everlasting moments... too. These Oscars sound pretty promising; we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

You can find more Oscar coverage coming as it is released here.

We are only a few months away from the Oscars, and this is the time of year that I get really excited. And aside from "Wall-E," "The Dark Knight," and "Appaloosa," I don't think we've seen any films that will be potential nominees yet ("Religulous" has a good chance getting a Best Documentary nom, and there's quite a few that come out this month). But here are just a few things about the Oscars that I've found today:

The first comes from Variety. They broke the news that for the first time, the Academy Awards will be shown with film trailers/spots during the commercial breaks. I don't understand why they never did this before, but I guess it is a better time as ever. The Super Bowl is a great place to start advertising movies, and so would the Oscars. Here are the rules in order to have the trailers being shown.

Acad[emy] will allow one spot per distributor, either 30 or 60 seconds in length.

The spot must not have run anywhere else prior to its debut on the Oscarcast.

The spot may not use the terms "Oscar" or "Academy Award."

The spot may only promote one pic, not a slate of pics.

There will only be one movie spot per commercial break during the three-hour telecast. (Which usually runs over four hours.)

This might actually be a good way to boost up ratings, but I have no idea what kind of previews they would show. I don't know if they will be going for big summer blockbusters like "Terminator: Salvation," "Wolverine," "Star Trek," or "Transformers 2," or if they are going to stick to just small independent films. It's a start, though.

This next announcement comes from The Academy, via ComingSoon.net. They have announced eight potential nominees in the Best Documentary - Short Film category. Remember that three to five of these will be nominated in the category.

The Conscience of Nhem En
David McCullough: Painting with Words
Downstream
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
Tongzhi in Love
Viva La Causa
The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306

Do you recognize any of these? Because I don't.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how more news turns out. For all of your Oscars 2008 coverage, stay here at FilmArcade. You can expect a lot of it.

Oh yeah, and that reminds me to remind you...



Here are some of the many plans that we plan on bringing you this year:



- Like always, we will hopefully have reviews of all of the films that will be nominated for Oscars in our Oscar Cleanup section.



- Day by day that goes by, we will be posting more news on the Oscars once it has been released to the public. Come November and December, you will know what I mean.



- Expect a lot of essays, Oscar predictions, and other fun stuff.



- This one is a "probably," but if they have it, then it is a definitely. Last year I attended AMC's Best Picture Showcase at Cherry Hill 24 in Cherry Hill, NJ, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had. If they do have it this year, I will be once again there watching all five of the films that are nominated.



- An Oscar podcast. Yes I said it.



- Last year's live Oscar blog was so much fun, and it made history at the FilmArcade as being the highest page-viewed day (over 1000 views). Don't be surprised if we don't bring you another one.