Joey Magidson
Folks, you all know what time it is once again! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you think!
In the crosshairs for me this week is the Best International Feature category. Once called Best Foreign Language Film, the now more appropriately named field has generated, especially in recent years, some all-time great winners. Movies like Another Round (fairly recently, two Oscars ago) Parasite, and A Separation immediately took their place in the upper tier of victors, as you can see below. They make up an incredible top seven with the likes of 8½, Cinema Paradiso (my personal favorite) Life is Beautiful, and Rashoman. Throw in All About My Mother, Fanny and Alexander, and The Lives of Others, and you have quite the top ten. When Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes in at number eleven, you know you’ve got good stuff ahead of it. To see the full ranking, including where the newest in Drive My Car parks, read on below…
Here are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best International Feature Oscar, to date:
25. Ida
24. Babette’s Feast
23. Nights of Cabiria
22. Drive My Car
21. La strada
20. Black Orpheus
19. Amour
18. Son of Saul
17. The Barbarian Invasions
16. Roma
15. The Bicycle Thief
14. The Virgin Spring
13. Day for Night
12. The Sea Inside
11. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
10. The Lives of Others
9. All About My Mother
8. Fanny and Alexander
7. Another Round
6. Rashoman
5. A Separation
4. Life is Beautiful
3. 8½
2. Parasite
1. Cinema Paradiso
Honorable Mentions: A Fantastic Woman, The Great Beauty, Pelle the Conqueror, The Secret in Their Eyes, Tsotsi, and Z
Stay tuned for another category later on this week or early next week!
I’m surprised to see Z not crack the top ten. Thinking about all of the atrocities and assassinations that have occurred since its initial release in 1969 makes watching it now even more of a gut punch.
Hell, the epilogue might be telling us our imminent future here in the United States…
Fair, it’s definitely due for a revisit…
See reading this list and the comment about Z makes me determined watch and rewatch the movies in this category. I don’t think I have enough for a list yet . I actually forgot that I watched several of them or forgot they won in this category.
Totally fair!