Joey Magidson
Happy Monday everyone, time to get on with another Oscar category ranking! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners for your reading pleasure. 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!
Up on the podium 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, three 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 a recent winner in Drive My Car parks, last year’s victor All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as our newest in The Zone of Interest, read on below…
Here are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best International Feature Oscar, to date:
25. The Zone of Interest
24. Babette’s Feast
23. Nights of Cabiria
22. Ida
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: All Quiet on the Western Front, Drive My Car, Pelle the Conqueror, The Secret in Their Eyes, Tsotsi, and Z
Stay tuned for another category early next week!
Off topic Joey but what happened to this weekend’s Sunday Scariest?
Didn’t have a topic for this weekend, and the Jim Henson doc out of Cannes was coming off of embargo, so it took a break. It’ll be back
Sorry, Scaries.
I looked over the Best International Feature List and I had no idea how many I have already watched at least once .I have watched several more since then .I will list all of them since I have many to go .
29.Black and White In Color
28.No Man’s Land
27.Characters
26.Another Round
25.All Quite on The Western Front
24.Drive My Car
23.Day For Night
22.In A Better World
21.Get Out Your Handkerchief
20.Bicycle Thieves
19.The Secret InTheir Eyes
18.Nights In Cabiria
17.Rashomon
16.All About My Mother
15.The Zone of Interest
14 Amour
13.LaStrada
12.Ida
11.Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow
10.Cinema Paradiso
9.Life Is Beautiful
8.Departues
7.Fanny and Alexander
6.Madame Rosa
5.The Official Story
4.Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
3.Parasite
2.Antonia’s Line
1.Roma
Tons of classics there!
It feels like recent winners are getting more mainstream? I don’t know it appears that way.
I don’t know that that’s the case, but the titles being submitted by the countries themselves do tend to be less adventurous, so there could be something there…
Maybe the are getting more similar between commercial and risk taking so they don’t seem adventurous.
Times do change, so that has something to do with it.