Many foreign films are premiering in American theaters this fall, trying to add some numbers by getting the attention of avid foreign moviegoers, hoping for some mainstream attendees, and earning a few nominations during awards season.
The race for the Golden Globes and Oscars® starts early, with films making noise at film festivals around the globe.
In the article 25 Great Foreign Films that Did Not Get Distribution in US Theaters," the Festival in LA pointed out how difficult it is for distributors to invest in publicity and marketing, but always hoping that movie lovers (the ones who don't mind reading subtitles) can make an impact at the box office.
Back in the early 90's, foreign films were marketed differently. Distributors were targeting a special audience: the foreign filmgoers. It was when "Like Water for Chocolate" broke records by staying in US theaters for more than 52 weeks. Pedro Almodovar's "High Heels" and "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" made a big impact. Other profitable foreign films were: "Indochina," "Raise the Red Lantern," "Leolo," and "Europa, Europa."
How soon can we see foreign movies playing in America? We will be watching them after they premiere in festivals and create enough buzz and press coverage to motivate people to go out and watch them.
Some of the films produced overseas have not reached a distribution deal yet, such as: "The Return," "The Invisible Boy," "The Future," "Miss Violence," "The Age of Innocence," "Ban Ban," "Ich und Kaminski," "Memories of the Sword," "Eden," "The Attorney," "A Second Chance," "Paraiso," "Run," "Workers," "El Ardor," "The Early Years," "Güeros," "Dual," "The Pilgrim: The Best Story of Paulo Coelho," "Shirley, Visions of Reality," "Man in Love," and many more…
Festival in LA recommends the 25 Great Foreign Films Getting Distribution in US Theaters in 2014:
1. Cantinflas
(Mexico)
Dir. Sebastián del Amo.
Actor: Óscar Jaenada.
Dir. Sebastián del Amo.
Actor: Óscar Jaenada.
August 29, 2014.
"Cantinflas" is a charming biopic about the life and movies of the great Mexican comedian Mario Moreno, "Cantinflas." This film is opening first in the US and then in Mexico, following the formula used by last year's box-office hit "Instructions Not Included." The problem with this wonderful film is its marketing. The company focuses on the "Latino market," excluding a large segment of the community. A good number of people know about the movies Cantinflas made in Mexico and in Hollywood. Also, they are forgetting about the foreign filmgoers - people who love movies about history, and people who like stories about the lives of movie stars.
In any case, this film has a lot of potential and deserves far more than the biopic "Cesar Chavez" made at the box office earlier this year.
In any case, this film has a lot of potential and deserves far more than the biopic "Cesar Chavez" made at the box office earlier this year.
Let's see if "Cantinflas" can break those cultural barriers, as the real Mario Moreno did when he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical for the Best Picture Oscar® winner "Around the World in 80 Days."
2. The Crossing
(China)
Dir. John Woo.
Fall 2014.
Fall 2014.
John Woo ("The Killer," "Face/Off," "Red Cliff"), after five years, directs a new production with epic dimensions and all top Asian stars, including Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Masami Nagasawa and Song Hye-Kyo. The story is set amid the 1949 Revolution, when four couples flee to Taiwan aboard a ship. This movie is getting known as the "Chinese Titanic."
3. 1,000 Times Good Night (Norway).
Oct. 24, 2014
An intense drama about the work and personal life of a war photographer played by Oscar winner Juliette Binoche ("The English Patient"), who wants to make a difference with her work capturing dangerous and daring photos.
The film is so powerful because it places real-world conflicts alongside beautiful cinematography and marvelous performances, juxtaposing her personal life, family, emotions, and helplessness.
© Bollywood Pictures.
4. Bombay Velvet (India)
Dir. Anurag Kashyap
Nov. 27, 2014.
An intense drama about the work and personal life of a war photographer played by Oscar winner Juliette Binoche ("The English Patient"), who wants to make a difference with her work capturing dangerous and daring photos.
The film is so powerful because it places real-world conflicts alongside beautiful cinematography and marvelous performances, juxtaposing her personal life, family, emotions, and helplessness.
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| © Bollywood Pictures. |
4. Bombay Velvet (India)
Dir. Anurag Kashyap
Nov. 27, 2014.
4. Bombay Velvet (India)
Dir. Anurag Kashyap
This is the second part of Anurag Kashyap's trilogy, which he started with "Gangs of Wasseypur." Mumbai is the city of love, greed, violence, and jazz. It's the story of an ordinary man, Ranbir Kapoor ("Barfi!", "RockStar ", "Saawariya"), who goes against the odds to become someone and gain the love of the beautiful girl played by Anushka Sharma.
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| ©Cannes Film Festival 2014 |
(Turkey)
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan,
Palme d'Or.
Fall 2014.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan conquered audiences in festivals around the world with "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," and now he is back with this year's Palme d'Or winner.
A bold and beautiful story about a former actor who takes care of a little hotel in the central part of Anatolia with his young wife and his sister-in-law.
The hotel serves as a shelter for many transients during the long, snowy season and as a setting for mysteries and psychological tensions between the family and the guests.
6. Black Coal, Thin Ice (China)
Dir. Yi'nan Diao
Dir. Yi'nan Diao
Fall 2014.
This amazing thriller is directed by Yi'nan Diao, the writer of "The Shower" and director of "Night Train." "Black Coal, Thin Ice" is the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2014. Starts with the apparition of a woman's dead body in the coal mine. The workers, in disbelief, see this event and detonate chaos.
A must see!
A must see!
7. Two Days, One Night
(Belgium/Italy/France)
Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
Fall 2014.
The Dardenne Brothers return, after great films such as "The Kid with a Bike," "L'Enfant," and "Lorna." A desperate woman (Marion Cotillard) tries to convince her colleagues, in one weekend, to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job. This intense drama won the Ecumenical Jury award in Cannes this year. 8. The Wonders
(Italy)
Dir. Alice Rohrwacher.
Fall 2014.
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A gorgeous portrait of an Italian family living on a farm in Tuscany. They are having a hard time because their honey production is in danger due to bee population declines caused by pesticides.
Gelsomina is the 12-year-old who leads the family in the daily work until one day, a TV show competition comes to town and changes their lives at the end of that magical summer.
This year's Grand Prix winner at Cannes received a 12-minute standing ovation and is a frontrunner to represent Italy at the Academy Awards, potentially bringing home an Oscar® for the country 2 years in a row. Italy has the most wins in the best foreign film category, with 14. France comes second with 12 wins.
9. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
(Sweden/Croatia)
Fall 2014.
This movie is based on the internationally bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson and is an adaptation of Felix Herngren's work for the big screen.
This crazy comedy retells the unlikely story of a 100-year-old man who holds on to the life lessons he's already learned and decides it's never too late to start over. But he never forgets the skills he learned in the past. It has been a hit in its native Sweden and plans to make it big in the USA.
This crazy comedy retells the unlikely story of a 100-year-old man who holds on to the life lessons he's already learned and decides it's never too late to start over. But he never forgets the skills he learned in the past. It has been a hit in its native Sweden and plans to make it big in the USA.
10. The Pirates (Korea). Fall 2014.
This is an epic battle between Pirates and
Bandits. They are fighting each other to catch a gray whale that swallowed a royal stamp symbol of the foundation for
a new nation. This packed action film is already known as:
"The Korean Pirates of the Caribbean"
for its big production. This movie is fun, exciting, and
above all, good to watch with the entire family.
11. The Golden Dream
(Mexico/Spain/Guatemala)
Dir. Diego Quemada-Diez
Fall 2014.
A magnificent journey of big dreams, unbroken souls
and helpless disenchantment,
This film is a very realistic tale of three young emigrants from Guatemala on a quest for "The American Dream." The dream crashes into the harsh reality migrants must confront, using real people in this fictional story.
The film comes across as a documentary thanks to the visuals and humanism, exposing the enormous problem that we deny solving.
More than 60 awards around the globe
have rewarded
"La Jaula de Oro,"
including the best cast in Cannes 2013,
and the Ariel awards in Mexico, including best picture, best first work, best actor, and best supporting actor.
have rewarded
"La Jaula de Oro,"
including the best cast in Cannes 2013,
and the Ariel awards in Mexico, including best picture, best first work, best actor, and best supporting actor.
12. Diplomacy
(France/Germany)
Dir. Volker Schlöndorff.
Nov. 7, 2014
After winning the Oscar in 1980 for "The Tin Drum," director Volker Schlöndorff returns with a remarkable historical drama based on a play about a relationship between a German military Governor of occupied Paris who wants to destroy the city before the Allied forces arrive, and the Swedish consul-general who persuades him. This nerve-racking political thriller is amusing audiences around the world.
13. Party Girl (France). Fall 2014.
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| Film Picture © Elzévir Films. |
Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, and Samuel Thes are the directors who won this year's Camera d'Or in Cannes for a movie about an aging nightclub hostess who decides to change her life, go on a date, and get married, right in her sixties.
14. Timbuktu (Mauritania/France)
Fall 2014.
Fall 2014.
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| ©Cannes Film Festival, 2014 |
Winner of the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Timbuktu is a city in chaos, ruled by a religious fundamentalist group that forbids music and laughter. People, especially women, must learn to survive extreme circumstances.
15. Leviathan (Russia). Dec 31, 2014.
15. Leviathan (Russia). Dec 31, 2014.
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| ©Cannes Film Festival, 2014 |
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| ©LA Hungarian Film Festival, 2013. |
16. The Notebook
(Hungary)
August 29, 2014.
When the world erupts into World War II, two 13-year-old twins are left behind when their father gets enlisted in the army, and their mother leaves them with a miserable and abusive grandmother. Before he is gone, he gives them a notebook and asks them to write a very detailed diary of their lives. This powerful yet still sweet war movie was Hungary's Oscar submission and made it to the shortlist last year. Director János Szász made a strong adaptation of the controversial novel by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof, showing the impact of war on the lives of the innocent.
17. Futuro Beach
(Brazil)
Dir. Karim Aïnouz (MADAME SATÃ).
Fall 2014.
Fall 2014.
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| ©Berlin Film Festival, 2014 |
Official Selection of Berlin and Outfest. This story moves from a paradisaical Brazilian hot beach to a cold, empty seaside in Germany. The emotions remain cold as the relationship of a handsome Brazilian lifeguard and a German biker unfolds.
It's an affair in which no one says "I love you," but circumstances keep them together, even as their world is turned upside down by the arrival of a young visitor from their past. Director Karim Aïnouz ("Madame Satá") has wonderfully created a cold world of restrained emotions. The magnificent performance of Wagner Moura ("Elite Squad," "Elysium") confirms him as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
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| Photo by Jose Alberto Hermosillo. ©www.FestivalinLA.com |
(Germany/Mexico)
Dir. Demian John Harper.
Spring 2015.
Spring 2015.
Winner at the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival. "Los Ángeles" is about a community in the high mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, where a dangerous group of deportees (a small sample of the 2 million people who were deported by the present US administration) takes over the criminal activities in the small town.
They are controlling the potential illegal aliens with their contacts at the border with Mexico and in US cities such as Los Angeles. The mafia group decides who leaves town and who stays, who lives and who dies. To understand the crisis of the Central American children at the U.S.-Mexico border, just take a good look at this powerful mafia film.
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| ©Outfest, 2014. |
19. Bad Hair
(Venezuela)
Dir. Mariana Rondón.
Fall 2014.
He is a good kid - the only problem is that no one understands him and his bad hair. A touchy subject about Venezuela that won plenty of awards at many festivals, such as San Sebastián, Toronto, and Havana.
20. Beloved Sisters(Germany)
Dir. Dominik Graf
(A Map of the Heart).
Fall 2014.
(A Map of the Heart).
Fall 2014.
This gorgeous time period piece is the winner of the best cinematography award at the Bavarian Film Festival. The beautiful images and music increase the tensions between lovers, family, and society. It's about two aristocratic sisters falling for the same man, the poet Friedrich Schiller. "Beloved Sisters" is the official German submission for the Oscars 2015.
21. Guten Tag, Ramón (Mexico/Germany)
Dir. Jorge Ramírez Suárez.
Jan. 2015.
"Good Day, Ramon" is the English title of this Mexican/German co-production directed by Jorge Ramírez Suárez ("Amar," "Rabbit on the Moon"). A Mexican boy escapes poverty and sets out on a trip to a distant country.
Dir. Jorge Ramírez Suárez.
Jan. 2015.
"Good Day, Ramon" is the English title of this Mexican/German co-production directed by Jorge Ramírez Suárez ("Amar," "Rabbit on the Moon"). A Mexican boy escapes poverty and sets out on a trip to a distant country.
This humanistic drama will bring people from opposite sides together, breaking down cultural and racial barriers. Eventually, Ramon and those around him will learn how humans should interact when language puts them apart, but friendship brings them together. A place where the word "amigo" gets a universal meaning.
22. Xenia
(Greece)
Dir. Panos H. Koutras.
Fall 2014.
Fall 2014.
This official selection in Cannes is getting a lot of attention and distribution in different markets and will hopefully make it to America. After the passing of their Albanese mother, two very different brothers set out on a quest to find their Greek father and make him recognize the paternity. An exceptional coming-of-age movie that embodies brotherhood, citizenship, and identity as major turning points.
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| ©COL-COA. A Week of French Films in Hollywood |
23. On the Way to School,
(France)
Jan. 2015.
Jan. 2015.
Four amazing stories of courage and endurance of children from different countries, walking for hours across an unfriendly environment, trying to make it to their schools. Those children are from Argentina, Kenya, India, and Morocco, and they will bring you tears of joy to see how determined they are to learn what will make their dreams come true.
If you think you had it hard when you went to school, think again, because those inspiring children are risking their lives every day, teaching us the real value of knowledge. No one should miss this marvelous and uplifting documentary.
24. Underdogs
(Argentina/Spain/India/ USA).
Juan Jose Campanella.
Jan. 15, 2015.
Oscar® winner Juan Jose Campanella ("The Secret in Their Eyes") wrote and directed "Metegol," the animated feature about Amadeo, a nerdy guy who gets bullied by Flash. But when Amadeo beats him at the Foosball, Flash leaves defeated. He returns as a big soccer star with great power and skills. He wants vengeance in an epic soccer match. Amadeo and his little new friends have to come up with a plan to save the town, the world, and the girl.
This movie is so ahead of its time that any comparison of what really happened at the 2014 World Cup's final in Brazil between Argentina and Germany is pure coincidence. The movie was made two years ago.
Now, American children and soccer fans will rejoice with this wonderful and original animation.
Now, American children and soccer fans will rejoice with this wonderful and original animation.
25. La Hija de Montezuma
(Mexico)
Dir. Iván Lipkies.
La India María.
Fall 2014.
La India Maria is one of the dearest and greatest comedians of Mexican cinema. She returns with a very funny, well-crafted adventure/comedy/parody of a peasant who becomes a hero to save the day.
American audiences may not be familiar with the great character of "La India María", comparable to Cantinflas or Tin Tan. The parodies of big Hollywood movies like "Indiana Jones" and "The Matrix" make this Mexican "Jack Ass" even funnier.
This popcorn flick is for everyone who wants to have fun at the movies.
25 Great Foreign Films that Did Not Get Distribution in US Theaters
"Cezanne and I": An Extraordinary Journey of Art and Friendship
"Elle" The New "Basic Instinct" with a "French Twist"
"My Life as a Zucchini": The Beautiful Animated Life of a Little Swiss Boy
"Neruda" Runaway Poet
"Colossal" Not Your Typical "Godzilla" Movie
MEXICO'S "THE NIGHT GUARD" WINS LA FILM FESTIVAL
15 Must-See French Films at COLCOA 2017
This popcorn flick is for everyone who wants to have fun at the movies.
Related Articles:
25 Great Foreign Films that Did Not Get Distribution in US Theaters
"Cezanne and I": An Extraordinary Journey of Art and Friendship
"Elle" The New "Basic Instinct" with a "French Twist"
"My Life as a Zucchini": The Beautiful Animated Life of a Little Swiss Boy
"Neruda" Runaway Poet
"Colossal" Not Your Typical "Godzilla" Movie
MEXICO'S "THE NIGHT GUARD" WINS LA FILM FESTIVAL
15 Must-See French Films at COLCOA 2017
10 The Best Latino Performances of 2016 And Their Absence From The Nominations
© FestivalinLA 2014.
