Foreign Contenders

  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Director Mouly Surya on Indonesian Western Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts

Reminiscent of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, Kurosawa’s samurai epics, and by extension of Tarantino’s revenge tales, Marlina the Murderer in…

5 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Shoplifters Director Hirokazu Kore-eda on Father Figures and His Methods of Working with Children

For the last 15 years, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has elicited unfeigned portrayals from children and teens using parameters tested…

5 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Director Ofir Raul Graizer Filmed Pastries Like People With The Cakemaker

MovieMaker’s series “Foreign Contenders” features interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for Best…

5 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Ziad Doueiri on Adapting American Courtroom Drama Tropes Into Lebanon’s The Insult 

Divisiveness is universal. That ironic truth is the key that allows people to understand and relate to geographically distant conflicts.…

6 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: John Trengove on Surviving the Controversy Surrounding South Africa’s The Wound

Conceived to forge men via traditional practices, the rite of passage in South Africa’s Xhosa community is grounded on the…

6 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Ildikó Enyedi Aligns Framing and Sound for the Dreamy Romance in Hungary’s On Body and Soul

Involuntarily stoic and permanently immaculate, but with a diligent willingness to forge bonds with others around her, Mária (Alexandra Borbély) joins…

6 years ago
  • Movie News

Foreign Contenders: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson Confronts Neighborly Conflicts with Under the Tree

Not unlike an alchemist, Icelandic Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson has mastered the improbable formula to produce amalgamations of universality with specificity.…

6 years ago
  • Interviews

Failed Fatherland: Martin Zandvliet Disarms a Dark Passage in Denmark’s History in Oscar-Nominated Land of Mine

Describing a war film as "visually economical" goes against the expectation of grandeur associated with those stories. In the case…

7 years ago
  • Directing

Foreign Contenders: Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada Dissects Romanian Society Through a Confined Epic

MovieMaker’s series “Foreign Contenders” will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for Best…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Veteran Actor Rade Šerbedžija Turns Director for Macedonian Drama The Liberation of Skopje

MovieMaker’s series “Foreign Contenders” will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for Best…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Cloak-And-Dagger Thriller The Age of Shadows Has Kim Jee-woon Channeling His Inner Patriot

MovieMaker's weekly series “Foreign Contenders” features interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Ukrainian Sheriffs is a Buddy Cop Doc Set Against the Annexation of Crimea

MovieMaker's weekly series “Foreign Contenders” features interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: A Veteran Actor and a Newcomer are Partners in Crime in Venezuela’s Riveting From Afar

MovieMaker's weekly series “Foreign Contenders” will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Sparrows Explores Modern Icelandic Masculinity on Beautiful 16mm

MovieMaker’s weekly series “Foreign Contenders” features interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Brillante Mendoza’s Ma’Rosa Tells a Real-Life Story, Driven By the Energy of the Philippines

MovieMaker's weekly series "Foreign Contenders" will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Finland’s The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki Revives 16mm Reversal Film

MovieMaker's weekly series "Foreign Contenders" will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries’ entries for the Academy Award for…

7 years ago
  • Interviews

Foreign Contenders: Georgia’s House of Others Invokes Tarkovsky to Explore Post-War Abkhazia

Over the next two months, MovieMaker's weekly series "Foreign Contenders" will feature interviews with the heavyweight helmers behind their respective countries' entries…

7 years ago