THE CURRENT STATE OF THE RACE

DECEMBER 6, 2022

(Ireland, Pakistan, France)

​The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced their lineup for 2023.  This year there will be 35 official International Feature submissions playing at the festival.  They always pick the strongest entries in this year's Academy Awards race, according to them.  The films playing this year are the following:

• Ajoomma (Singapore) Director He Shuming 
• Alcarràs (Spain) Director Carla Simón 
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) Director Edward Berger 
• Argentina, 1985 (Argentina) Director Santiago Mitre 
• Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico) Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu 
• Beautiful Beings (Iceland) Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson 
• Blanquita (Chile) Director Fernando Guzzoni 
• The Blue Caftan (Morocco) Director Maryam Touzani 
• Cairo Conspiracy (Sweden) Director Tarik Saleh 
• Cinema Sabaya (Israel) Director Orit Fouks Rotem 
• Close (Belgium) Director Lukas Dhont 
• Corsage (Austria) Director Marie Kreutzer 
• Darkling (Serbia) Director Dušan Milić (U.S. Premiere) 
• Decision to Leave (South Korea) Director Park Chan-wook 
• EO (Poland) Director Jerzy Skolimowski 
• Eternal Spring (Canada) Director Jason Loftus 
• The Happiest Man in the World (North Macedonia) Director Teona Strugar Mitevska
• Holy Spider (Denmark) Director Ali Abbasi 
• Il Boemo (Czech Republic) Director Petr Václav
• Joyland (Pakistan) Director Saim Sadiq 
• Kalev (Estonia) Director Ove Musting 
• Klondike (Ukraine) Director Maryna Er Gorbach 
• Last Film Show (India) Director Pan Nalin 
• Mars One (Brazil) Director Gabriel Martins 
• Mediterranean Fever (Palestine) Director Maha Haj 
• Nostalgia (Italy) Director Mario Martone 
• The Quiet Girl (Ireland) Director Colm Bairéad 
• Return to Seoul (Cambodia) Director Davy Chou 
• Saint Omer (France) Director Alice Diop 
• Under the Fig Trees (Tunisia) Director Erige Sehiri 
• Utama (Bolivia) Director Alejandro Loayza Grisi 
• Victim (Slovakia) Director Michal Blaško 
• War Sailor (Norway) Director Gunnar Vikene
• World War III (Iran) Director Houman Seyyedi 
• You Won’t Be Alone (Australia) Director Goran Stolevski

What makes this festival so important is that they usually predict 14 of the 15 shortlisted films.  So, it is safe to assume that of these 35 films, 14 of them will be shortlisted on December 21st.

Now Letterboxd usually predicts around 10 or so from their list of the top 15 rated films.  So far, this year, they are the following films:

• Alcarràs (Spain) Director Carla Simón 
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) Director Edward Berger 
• Argentina, 1985 (Argentina) Director Santiago Mitre 
• Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico) Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu 
• Beautiful Beings (Iceland) Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson 
• The Blue Caftan (Morocco) Director Maryam Touzani 
• Close (Belgium) Director Lukas Dhont 
• Decision to Leave (South Korea) Director Park Chan-wook 
• The Kings of The World (Colombia) Director Laura Mora
• Joyland (Pakistan) Director Saim Sadiq 
• Mars One (Brazil) Director Gabriel Martins 
• Missing Home (Indonesia) Director Bene Dion Rajagukguk
• The Quiet Girl (Ireland) Director Colm Bairéad 
• Safe Place (Croatia) Director Juraj Lerotic
• Utama (Bolivia) Director Alejandro Loayza Grisi ​

12 films of the top 15 are playing at Palm Springs.  The Kings of the World, Missing Home and Safe Place are not playing at the festival.

Now based on those 12, perhaps 2 of them will unfortunately not make it in but these 12 have become excellent picks now to be shortlisted:

• Alcarràs (Spain) Director Carla Simón 
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) Director Edward Berger 
• Argentina, 1985 (Argentina) Director Santiago Mitre 
• Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico) Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu 
• Beautiful Beings (Iceland) Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson 
• The Blue Caftan (Morocco) Director Maryam Touzani 
• Close (Belgium) Director Lukas Dhont 
• Decision to Leave (South Korea) Director Park Chan-wook 
• Joyland (Pakistan) Director Saim Sadiq 
• Mars One (Brazil) Director Gabriel Martins 
• The Quiet Girl (Ireland) Director Colm Bairéad 
• Utama (Bolivia) Director Alejandro Loayza Grisi ​

​Which high buzz films are not in the Letterboxd top 15 but are playing in Palm Springs?  We've picked 12 of them:

• Cairo Conspiracy (Sweden) Director Tarik Saleh 
• Corsage (Austria) Director Marie Kreutzer 
• EO (Poland) Director Jerzy Skolimowski 
• Holy Spider (Denmark) Director Ali Abbasi 
• Klondike (Ukraine) Director Maryna Er Gorbach 
• Last Film Show (India) Director Pan Nalin 
• Mediterranean Fever (Palestine) Director Maha Haj 
• Nostalgia (Italy) Director Mario Martone 
• Return to Seoul (Cambodia) Director Davy Chou 
• Saint Omer (France) Director Alice Diop 
• War Sailor (Norway) Director Gunnar Vikene
• World War III (Iran) Director Houman Seyyedi 

Somewhere in those 24 films we'll have our shortlisted top 15.  Now, Palm Springs doesn't always get it right.  So which film do we feel will be able to squeeze into the final spot?  Perhaps one of these 5?

• Narcosis (Netherlands) Director Martijn de Jong
• A Cup of Coffee And New Shoes On (Albania) Director Gentian Koci
• Harvest Moon (Mongolia) Director Amarsaikhan Baljinnyam
• Girl Picture (Finland) Director Alli Haapasalo
• The Exam (Iraq) Director Shawkat Amin Korki

There are just too many incredible films to choose from ... and it's so difficult to choose which of the films will be shortlisted.  But for right now, we're thinking it will be the following:

Argentina - Argentina, 1985
Austria - Corsage
Belgium - Close
Bolivia - Utama
Cambodia - Return to Seoul
Denmark - Holy Spider
France - Saint Omer
Germany - All Quiet on the Western Front
Ireland - The Quiet Girl
Morocco - The Blue Caftan
Pakistan - Joyland
Poland - EO
South Korea - Decision to Leave
Spain - Alcarras
​Ukraine - Klondike