For Your Consideration: The 2012 Oscar-Nominated Foreign Films

The Carsey-Wolf Center was pleased to announce the launch of “For Your Consideration,” an exciting and timely new film series featuring the Foreign Language Oscar-nominated feature films, February 14 - 18, 2012, at the Pollock Theater, UCSB.

The beautiful, state-of-the-art Pollock Theater was the ideal setting for this rare opportunity to see all five Foreign Language films nominated by the Academy.  Not only did the series give the Santa Barbara community the unique opportunity to ‘be in the know’ during the Academy Award ceremony on February 26, 2012; as a special treat, each film will be preceded by an Oscar-nominated Live Action or Animation Short!

The Pollock Poll Results

While the subject of each of the five foreign films was quite serious, the quality of the filmmaking was outstanding. Each night the audience participated in the Pollock Poll and rated their enjoyment of each film on a 1-5 scale with "5" being GREAT.

Here are the results of the 2012 Pollock Poll for the Foreign Film category-

Tickets

$10 general admission, $30 Gold Pass includes all five films at the Pollock Theater

$5 per film for UCSB students

Academy members are free 

Location

All films will be screened at the new Pollock Theater at UCSB, located at the central bus loop on campus. Click here for information on parking and directions. 

About the Oscar Nominated Foreign-Language Films

MONSIEUR LAZHAR 

Philippe Falardeau (Canada)

Tuesday, February 14

7:30 p.m., UCSB Pollock Theater

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humor, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death. Winner of the Best Screenplay and FIPRESCI prize at the Valladolid International Film Festival. 

A SEPARATION

Asghar Farhadi (Iran)

Wednesday, February 15

7:30 p.m., UCSB Pollock Theater

A married couple is faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease. Winner of 43 awards and 18 nominations including Best Foreign Film at BAFTA and the British Independent Film Festival. View the trailer. 

BULLHEAD aka “Rundskop”

Michael R. Roskam (Belgium)

Thursday, February 16

7:30 p.m., UCSB Pollock Theater

The young Limburg cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman, and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky's past, set in motion a chain of events with far reaching consequences. BULLHEAD is an exciting tragedy about fate, lost innocence and friendship, about crime and punishment, but also about conflicting desires and the irreversibility of a man's destiny. Winner of the Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Director at the Austin Fantastic Fest. View the trailer. 

IN DARKNESS

Agnieszka Holland (Poland)

Friday, February 17

7:30 p.m., UCSB Pollock Theater

In the realm of Holocaust survival tales, IN DARKNESS occupies a rather unusual position in that virtue and vice are attributed to Jews and non-Jews alike. This story of suffering and almost inadvertent humanitarianism is harrowing, engrossing, claustrophobic and sometimes literally hard to watch. Much of the action takes place in the dim sewers under Lvov (aka Lviv), where roughly a dozen Polish Jews hid from the Nazis for more than a year, tenuously protected by a Catholic worker with no initial reason to help them other than guilt. Beginning its festival rollout in Telluride and Toronto, Agnieszka Holland's robust drama is ironic and multi-faceted. View the trailer. 

FOOTNOTE aka “Hearat Shulayam”

Joseph Cedar (Israel)

Saturday, February 18

7:30 p.m., UCSB Pollock Theater

The plot revolves a power struggle between a father and his son who both teach at the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak. Winner of the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards. View the trailer. 

About the Oscar-Nominated Animated and Live Action Shorts

 "For Your Consideration..." series will include the screening of Oscar-nominted short films from the Animated or Live Action Shorts categories.  One of the Oscar-nominated Shorts will be screened before the Foreign Film feature each evening:

            WILD LIFE by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (Canada, 13 min.)

This animated short tells the story of a dapper young remittance man is sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching in 1909. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle.

            DIMANCHE (aka. Sunday) by Patrick Doyon (Canada, 9 min.)

Every Sunday, it's the same old routine! The train clatters through the village and almost shakes the pictures off the wall. In the church, Dad dreams about his toolbox. And of course later Grandma will get a visit and the animals will meet their fate. Animated short.

            TIME FREAK by Andrew Bowler  (USA, 11 min.)

 A neurotic inventor creates a time machine and gets lost traveling around yesterday.

            A MORNING STROLL by Grant Orchard  (UK, 7 min.)

When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll we are left to wonder which one is the real city slicker in this animated short.

            THE SHORE by Terry George (Ireland, 29 min,)

Two boyhood best friends from Northern Ireland reunite after 25 years.