Istanbul Modern Cinema, presents a program of films nominated for the “Best Foreign Language Film” category in anticipation of the upcoming Oscars ceremony. Highlighting the prominent productions in this race, the selection represents a category that features films from different cultures and languages, and which attained success in film festivals across the world outside Hollywood, before their nomination for the Oscars. Some of the outstanding films in the program are: Elle, Paul Verhoeven’s first feature film in French and the subject of which sparked debates; My Life as a Zucchini (Ma Vie de Courgette), a bitter-sweet French-Swiss animation favored at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; The Salesman (Forushande) by Ashgar Farhadi – one of the most powerful representatives of contemporary Iranian cinema – is a film that presents a new moral resolution through the lives and of Rana and Emad who play the lead roles in a local rendition of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”; “Julieta, renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s 20th feature film based on a woman’s past; Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) is an Italian documentary that is based on one of the most pressing social issues of our time - Europe’s refugee crisis, and Apprentice, a Singaporeanpsychological drama set in a jail that centers on the relationship between a correctional officer and an executioner.
APPRENTICE, 2016
Singapore, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Qatar| DCP, Color, 115’ | Malay, English
Director: Boo Jungfen
Cast: Firdaus Rahman, Wan Hanafi Su, Mastura Ahmad
BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH (BARAKAH YOQABIL BARAKAH), 2016
Saudi Arabia | DCP, Color, 88’ | Arabic
Director: Mahmoud Sabbagh
Cast: Hisham Fageeh, Fatima AlBanawi, Sami Hifny
CLASH (ESHTEBAK), 2016
Egypt, France | DCP, Color, 97’ | Arabic
Director: Mohamed Diab
Cast: Nelly Karim, Hany Adel, Tarek Abdel Aziz, Mai El Ghaity
DESIERTO, 2015
Mexico, France | DCP, Color, 94’ | Spanish, English
Director: Jonás Cuarón
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Alondra Hidalgo
ELLE, 2015
France | DCP, Color, 130’ | French
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny
FIRE AT SEA (FUOCOAMMARE), 2016
Italy, France | DCP, Color, 114’ | Italian, English
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Cast: Samuele Pucillo, Pietro Bartolo, Maria Costa
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! (HOUSTON, IMAMO PROBLEM!), 2016
Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Qatar | DCP, Color, 87’ |Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, English
Director: Žiga Virc
IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (JUSTE LA FIN DU MONDE), 2016
Canada, France | DCP, Color, 97’ | French
Director: Xavier Dolan
Cast: Nathalie Baye, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard
JULIETA, 2016
Spain | DCP, Color, 99’ | Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao
LAND OF MINE (UNDER SANDET), 2016
Denmark, Germany | Blu-Ray, Color, 100’ | Danish, German, English
Director: Martin Zandvliet
Cast: Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI (MA VIE DE COURGETTE), 2016
Switzerland, France | DCP, Color, 66’ | French
Director: Claude Barras
Dubbing: Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat, Paulin Jaccoud
NERUDA, 2016
Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, USA | DCP, Color, 107’ | Spanish, French
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Luis Gnecco
ON THE OTHER SIDE (S ONE STRANE), 2016
Croatia, Serbia | DCP, Color, 85’ | Croatian
Director: Zrinko Ogresta
Cast: Ksenija Marinković, Lazar Ristovski, Tihana Lazović
THE AGE OF SHADOWS, 2016
South Korea | DCP, Color, 140’ | Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo, Song Kang-ho
THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MÄKI (HYMYILEVÄ MIES), 2016
Sweden, Finland, Germany | DCP, Black & White, 90’ | Finnish
Director: Juho Kuosmanen
Cast: Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff
THE SALESMAN (FORUSHANDE), 2016
Iran, France | DCP, Color, 125’ | Persian
Director:Asghar Farhadi
Cast:Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi
TONI ERDMANN, 2016
Germany | DCP, Color, 162’ | German, English
Director: Maren Ade
Cast: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Michael Wittenborn