Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Oscar Changes Foreign Language Film Rules...Again

Sometimes it seems that all awards shows ever do is tweak their rules. The Emmys have done that again and we'll find out if it's paid off with "cooler" nominations tomorrow morning. But no one can beat the Oscars for constant rule changes. Foreign language Oscars have proven the trickiest. Now they've decided that countries can submit foreign language films for the Oscar that AREN'T in that country's dominant language. It's perfectly reasonable, since so many films are co-productions and a movie like "Babel" starring Brad Pitt comes with major portions in three different languages (as just one current example). But look for an uproar when some country like France produces a big budget summer movie like Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" in English and then submits it for the foreign language Oscar. It'll happen, trust me.

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