When international films get chosen to be featured at festivals like HIFF worldwide, it starts them on a journey in hopes of gaining wider accolades, and few match the prestige of winning an Oscar.
Our festival has been fortunate enough in years past to screen foreign films that later went on win such a coveted prize, from EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022), to PARASITE (2019) and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON (2000). In addition, as an Academy Award ® qualifying film festival for short films, the scope is even widened with films like IVALU, THE RED SUITCASE, and ISLAND IN BETWEEN all as recent examples of HIFF official selections that have gone on to be nominated for Oscar Best Short categories.
This year is no different. The following five films will be screened at HIFF and were chosen to represent their respective countries for consideration in hopes to make the final list of nominees in the Best International Feature Film category for the Academy Awards that will be given out on March 2, 2025.
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (showing at 2:15 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 6)
Although the film is set in Tehran, Iran, with a predominantly Iranian cast and crew, the film is produced mainly by a German company, and so it’s a possible Oscar nominee from that country.
Also since director Mohammad Rasoulof shot his feature in secret – for fear of repercussion from Iranian authorities – he fled the country after receiving an eight-year prison sentence for his ongoing criticism of the regime and is now understood to be based in Germany.
The story follows an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify, all while his gun mysteriously disappears. Suspecting the involvement of his wife and university-attending daughters, he imposes drastic measures at home, causing tensions to rise.
In a joint statement, Rasoulof and his producers said they were “deeply honored” to be the German entry for the awards. “This film, which tells the story of oppression, but also of hope and resistance, is the result of a unique collaboration between people with very different realities of life and migration histories,” adding “it shows how powerful intercultural exchange can exist in a free and open society.”
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE (showings at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 9, and 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10)
The absurdist caper from writer-director Matthew Rankin premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. His film transposes Iran to the Canadian city of Winnipeg and weaves together several episodes: children discover money frozen in ice; a walking tour guide leads his bored guests to underwhelming attractions, and a man quits his job and embarks on a journey to visit his estranged grandmother.
Rankin calls his film a piece of “autobiographical hallucination.”
CLOUD (showings at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, and 4:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13)
This thriller from Japanese favorite Kiyoshi Kurosawa (PULSE and CURE) follows a young man who resells goods online who finds himself at the center of a series of mysterious events that put his life at risk.
Artistic Director Anderson Le praises CLOUD as “a compellingly enigmatic update to the director’s own PULSE, turning in an offbeat internet-age drama into a highly watchable vengeance actioner.”
Japan received an Oscar nomination in the Best International Feature Film category last year with Wim Wenders’ PERFECT DAYS and won the Academy Award in 2022 with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s DRIVE MY CAR. Yojiro Takita’s DEPARTURES previously won the Oscar for Japan in 2008.
EMILIA PEREZ (showing at 8:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12)
France has selected Jacques Audiard’s exhilarating redemption thriller for Oscar consideration. The titular character is a fearsome Spanish drug lord who embraces her true self as a woman. EMILIA PEREZ earned one of this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s longest standing ovations and went on to win the Jury Prize, on top of a Best Actress Prize for the ensemble cast, including Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.
FLOW (showings at 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, and 12:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13)
This animated feature first premiered at Cannes before going to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival where it won four prizes, including the competition jury and audience awards.
The story centers around a cat who teams up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog after a flood destroys his home. Featuring a melding of various animation techniques, the singular film from Gints Zibalodis marks Latvia’s 16th submission to the Academy Awards, with the country yet to score a nomination.
