Next year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film will be voted on by countries around the world for the first time in the Academy Awards' 90-year history, the president revealed at Dubai International Film Festival (Diff). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) previously decided which film should get the award after voting members in the United States and the United Kingdom nominated a shortlist.
But new president John Bailey, who took over the helm at the Academy in August, overturned the process, enabling voters in multiple countries to have their say. While the first round of screenings will take place in the US and Britain, streaming will enable more Academy members in different places to participate in deciding on who the winner will be.
Bailey said the change had come about because while Hollywood had historically absorbed the best of talent from around the world, there was an increasing awareness of accomplished filmmakers around the globe and a hunger for world cinema.
The move comes after a growing number of calls for more diverse voices to be recognised and included in how the Academy functions. Movements such as #OscarsSoWhite have led to growing recognition of the need to reflect minorities both in film selections and among those in charge of the film industry’s biggest awards ceremony. “This year we are opening it up to all members. For the first time, all the members who live outside the US and the UK will be able to sign up in some way,” Bailey told a Diff audience.
“They will be able to see all nine [shortlisted] films and vote on five online. It is going to be much more expanded this year, not just in terms of American and English members but around the world.”
Deciding on the Best Foreign Language Film has always been a convoluted process and weighted in favour of the opinions of voters in the US and UK, which made little sense when the US was not eligible to enter the category. Bailey, a cinematographer who worked on The Big Chill, Groundhog Day and As Good as It Gets, has long been a fan of foreign language cinema and started pushing for long-awaited changes in the voting rules when he took up his four-year post. Under the new system, the 92 eligible foreign language films were screened in Los Angeles this week. Anyone living in Southern California was eligible to sign up to vote, as long as they committed to watching 15 of the films.
The academy has 2,000 registered members in LA, of whom up to 600 volunteers signed up to see this year's entries. The six highest-rated films from that first round will go through to the next stage, where an Academy-nominated executive committee, who have watched all the entries between them, add three more films deemed worthy to the shortlist (this phase was introduced in 2008 after Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, among others, missed out on an Oscar nomination).
In January next year, that shortlist of nine films will then be screened in San Francisco, London and New York over a three-day period and will be voted on by any of the Academy’s 8,400 members worldwide. Crucially, the shortlist will simultaneously be streamed in countries across the world. Although the membership is a closely guarded secret, the Academy has 17 branches worldwide.
The final five will be announced on January 23. Bailey said: "It started in 1956 with Fellini's La Strada [the first time the Oscars had a foreign language category] and every year since then, the number of countries taking part increases. This year 92 countries submitted films. Even our most dedicated member did not see all 92. I certainly didn't – I was travelling, but I did see about 35 of them.
“The reality is that the entire history of filmmaking in Hollywood, right from the silent days, has devoured and absorbed the best talent from around the world. In the silent era, we saw all the great, incredibly distinguished filmmakers sucked out of the Weimar Republic and into Hollywood. There were many of them who became defined as American filmmakers but they were really from different parts of the world.”
He said historically, foreign filmmakers like François Truffaut, who tried to make English language films in Hollywood, had failed. "I hope they continue to make films in their own countries."
The Ampas president added that while it was undeniable that “American and Hollywood cinema is a colossus,” he was thrilled to see “filmmakers around the world who are achieving and maintaining a stronger identity within their own culture and starting to be recognised, just not in Hollywood”. He added they no longer needed to flock to the LA-based industry for that recognition.
Kimberly Peirce, director of Boys Don't Cry (1999) and governor of Ampas, said films like last year's Best Picture winner Moonlight showed there was growing diversity in cinema. "They are American films but they [represent] a different side of America that we have never seen," she said.
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Read more from Diff 2017:
Haifaa Al Mansour won’t get the hump after winning funding for camel movie
Local industry reacts to Saudi cinema opening announcement
Matt Damon on ‘Downsizing’
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UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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Switzerland 0
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Result: England win 6-5 on penalties
Man of the Match: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Pakistan 106-8 (20 ovs)
Iftikhar 45, Richardson 3-18
Australia 109-0 (11.5 ovs)
Warner 48 no, Finch 52 no
Australia win series 2-0
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
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Profile of Foodics
Founders: Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani
Based: Riyadh
Sector: Software
Employees: 150
Amount raised: $8m through seed and Series A - Series B raise ongoing
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
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SPECS
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LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5