Later this month, the entire film industry and many more cinephiles besides, will turn their attention to the US and the annual awards circus called the Oscars. For better or for worse, the awards voted on by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) are regarded as the ultimate film award. Over at Nathaniel R's The Film Experience, european-films.net editor Boyd van Hoeij participated in an Oscar symposium about this year's nominees and likely winners. The other participants in the discussion are Sasha Stone, Dennis Cozzalio, Kim Morgan, Nick Davis, Tim Robey and host Nathaniel R. In the animated, three-day chat Cotillard finds some unexpected love, Juno, There Will Be Blood and Atonement engender much discussion and presumed winner No Country for Old Men almost goes unmentioned. The entire symposium is online here. Comments can be added on the TFE blog. 

 

• The New York Sun looks at the Scandinavian Foreign Language Oscar submissions: Myrin (Jar City), Tatt av kvinnen (Gone with the Woman), Miehen työ (A Man's Job), Du levande (You, the Living) and Kunsten at græde i kor (The Art of Crying) (via Movie City News).
• The New York Times talks with German-Turkish director Fatih Akin about his German Foreign Language Oscar submission Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven).
• The Believer talks with Marjane Satrapi about France's Foreign Language Oscar submission and potential Best Animated Feature nominee Persepolis (via greencine daily).
• Various directors talk with The Hollywood Reporter about their Foreign Language Oscar submissions in two parts: the front-runners and the rest.
• The Alternative Film Guide has the shortlist for the titles up for consideration for the Best Make-up Oscar. They include two French-language films, Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and La môme (La Vie en Rose), as well as the latest installment in the British bespectacled underage wizard franchise: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
• Finally: Nathaniel R of The Film Experience discovers a short-lived joy in one of last year's Foreign Language Oscar submissions: Verhoeven's Zwartboek (Black Book).