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Int’l Oscar Race Heats Up

Only a handful left to declare: With the deadline for entry to the Best International Feature Film of the 97th Academy Awards closing on October 2, the race is seriously heating up and frontrunners are starting to emerge. Deadline has tracked 83 entries so far against 88 last year, with a handful of territories still expected to publicly declare their submissions, so we are nearly there in the highly anticipated race. We’ve been on the ground at many a film festival in the past few months and therefore have a decent sense of the frontrunners at this stage.

Hot contenders: Early heat is emanating from Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez for France. Karla Sofía Gascón stars as the titular cartel leader who wants to fake her own death so she can authentically live as her true self. The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes, while Gascón shared the best actress prize with co-stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez. The country has not won in the category since Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993. Also in the mix is Walter Salles’ comeback feature I’m Still Here, starring Fernanda Torres as a woman whose leftist politician husband disappeared in the early years of the Brazilian military dictatorship. The film debuted at Venice, winning best screenplay, before making a well-received North American bow in Toronto. There is also solid momentum around Germany’s unexpected entry The Seed of the Sacred Fig by celebrated Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof, who is living in exile in the country, having fled persecution in his native Iran. The film world premiered in Cannes shortly after Rasoulof’s dramatic escape from the country, winning the Special Jury Prize. Other buzzy Oscar hopefuls include Ireland’s Sundance breakout Kneecap, about the real-life West Belfast rap trio of the same name, and Latvian animation Flow, about a solitary cat forced to cooperate with other animals to survive a flood. It clinched a trio of awards at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Outliers to the fore: Others will come to the fore in the coming weeks, as Academy members screen some of the more obscure entries with limited international exposure until now. In the meantime, awards campaign veterans are ramping up their activities, even for smaller films. Speaking on an awards season panel at the Zurich Summit over the weekend, publicity and marketing consultant Tolley Shields, who worked on the campaigns for big hitters All Quiet on the Western Front and The Zone of Interest, said participating in the race has benefits beyond the top prize. “A small campaign is actually to give the film a spotlight and a moment,” she said. “Other people in the industry will notice who they are and get to know their work, and with the the international race, a shortlist inclusion before you get to nominations is a massive win,” she added. Last year’s winner was, of course, Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest, now remembered as much for Glazer’s controversial acceptance speech afterwards as for the movie’s thought-provoking narrative. The shortlist of 15 titles will be announced on December 17, followed by the final nomination list on January 17. Here’s our handy contenders tracker to keep you up to date.

October 7 Anniversary

A difficult week: “Imagine being a mother with three kids, waking one morning and all of a sudden there are dozens of terrorists banging on your door and your son has been kidnapped.” This was the scenario posed by Oscar-nominated Israeli filmmaker Dror Moreh when we caught up close to the anniversary of October 7, that tragic day when 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage following a deadly Hamas attack. It has been a difficult week. Moreh and his producer collaborator Uri Shinar were revealing Even the Walls Cry, a documentary feature made almost entirely by volunteers charting the recent journeys of four people whose lives were irrevocably altered in just a few hours on October 7. Moreh said Israel suffers from “continuous trauma every day,” and that the date is now “burned into collective memories.” What has followed has been a horrendous year of fighting in the Middle East. Thousands upon thousands have died in Gaza. The conflict has more recently expanded to Lebanon and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of retaliation over Iran’s missile attack earlier this month. There has, meanwhile, been plenty of soul searching and protest in communities around the world. In a timely reminder that war is still raging and, tragically, is spiralling, Jesse spoke with British journalists on the ground in Lebanon. “The uncertainly of this conflict drives so much of the worry, tension and fear,” said Channel 4 news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy. And for more from the conflict, Melanie penned this fascinating piece chronicling how Lebanon’s oldest cinema is giving shelter to the displaced. In a tough week, Deadline’s thoughts go out to those impacted on all sides of this horrendous conflict. We hope the situation will be different this time next year.

Contrasting Fortunes For Channel 4 & Netflix

Deficits & bonuses: It was UK annual results week this week for Channel 4 (C4) and Netflix and the pair of frenemies’ accounts showed up contrasting fortunes. C4 was always expected to post a deficit coming off the back of what was a very tricky financial year, but not many at the Horseferry Road briefing expected it to be quite so big, coming in at a record £52M ($67M). Senior bosses stressed that during a difficult year the network had prioritized content spend over keeping the deficit down — a strength of its unique business model — although this led to yet more tricky questions over why relations with producers had reached such lows if the C4 modus operandi had been to keep spending. With this in mind, the results revealed programs boss Ian Katz had refused a bonus, which his CEO Alex Mahon explained was made “particularly because he feels close to the indie community.” The awkward pause that followed when she subsequently had to explain why herself and COO Jonathan Allan did not forego their own bonuses was rather lengthy. I revealed several months back that Mahon, Katz and Allan would all be taking reduced bonuses this year. Since then, Katz has clearly had a change of heart. However, C4 is forecasting better things for 2024. The deficit this year will be smaller, Mahon said, the digital strategy is showing signs of bearing fruit, and, anecdotally via our chats with sources, relations with indies seem to be improving, as the UK’s most anarchic broadcaster clears a path to brighter days.

Causing ‘Kaos’: No such hard luck at Netflix UK, which had a strong 2023, recording a soaring profit boost of 70% and seeing its subs base shoot up by 7%. Notably, the streamer’s much-maligned income tax bill doubled to £14M, likely offsetting previous critiques of the streamer for not paying enough back to the country that it regularly refers to it as its most crucial (behind the U.S.). Content-wise, Netflix UK had a solid 2023 with shows including The Crown, Top Boy and Beckham, while 2024 will likely be even better as was demonstrated by the data dump last month that showcased the success of Fool Me Once, Baby Reindeer, Bridgerton and The Gentlemen. One show that won’t be pushing on, however, is Charlie Covell’s Greek mythology retelling Kaos. In a timely reminder that cancelations are never far away at Netflix HQ, the Jeff Goldblum-starrer was axed earlier this week, coming as a surprise to all and sundry. Despairing audiences took to social media to voice disquiet about a show that had already attracted a decent fan base and performed well in the Netflix top 10s. Covell issued a statement Thursday saying they were “gutted,” while urging fans to “please keep talking about Kaos.”

‘Rust’ Premiere Raises Eyebrows

Questioning the launchpad: To Poland, where Zac revealed disquiet amongst the cinematography community with the eyebrow-raising decision to premiere Alec Baldwin western Rust at the Camerimage Film Festival. The movie will be screened in tribute to Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who died on set after being shot during filming. While Camerimage stressed it wants to pay tribute to the late Ukrainian cinematographer, her peers took to social media and WhatsApp to criticize the move, questioning whether it is appropriate for Camerimage to serve as launchpad for the controversial western and querying why Hutchins’ earlier work couldn’t be shown instead. “I’m all for memorializing Halyna and her beautiful work but not by screening and thereby promoting the film that killed her,” Oscar-nominated Black Panther DoP Rachel Morrison posted on Instagram. Morrison’s post was seconded by a number of cinematographers, although others pointed out that Hutchins’ former mentor and ASC president Stephen Lighthill was taking part in a panel session after the screening, and swung in behind the decision. As of now, the fest hasn’t responded to our comment request but that may change and we’ll keep you posted.

London (Film Festival) Calling

‘Blitz’ unveiled: The BFI’s London Film Festival (LFF) opened Wednesday with a rare event: A highly-anticipated world premiere. Due to the festival calendar, LFF doesn’t normally premiere the fall’s biggest titles, but the BFI landed a coup by nabbing Blitz, the latest feature-length project from artist-filmmaker Steve McQueen. The WW2 flick debuted at London’s Southbank Centre, which is hosting LFF gala screenings. Other films set to be given the Southbank treatment include Mike Leigh’s latest Hard Truths, Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, and the Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield romantic drama We Live in Time. Big names will also pass through London for LFF’s popular screen talks programme, which McQueen also opened Wednesday. The filmmaker discussed his decades-long career, including what he remembered best from Oscar night in 2014 when he became the first Black filmmaker to win Best Picture. “I met Prince,” McQueen joked. “He took his shades off and met my mum. It was Prince, man, oh my god.” You can see our full recap of the talk here alongside a separate session with Get Out actor Daniel Kaluuya here. And why not check out Zac’s sit-down with festival boss Kristy Matheson over here. LFF runs until October 20 and we’ll continue bringing you the latest.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: BFI boss Ben Roberts has apologized after an investigation concluded that the movie body “badly” mishandled a racial discrimination complaint, per Jake’s latest.

🌶️ Hotting up: Daniel Dae Kim is exec producing Makawalu, Hawaii’s biggest ever indie feature.

🌶️ Really hot: Stephen Graham told us he will star in the Peaky Blinders movie.

🪓 Breaking Baz: Slow Horses‘ Ruth Bradley talked Bram Stoker’s Dracula and how she prepares for an audition.

🚀 Launch: For Disney+’s Return to Las Sabinas, the streamer’s big daily drama bet. Stew chatted to the people responsible.

🖼️ Slate: The BBC drew inspiration from 1917 and The Last Dance for its latest natural history slate.

🎤 The Big Interview: Producers behind Indian hit Kalki 2898 AD told Sara about their battle to secure overseas distribution and how the sequel is coming along.

🏕️ Festival latest: Thomas Vinterberg was named Marrakech Jury President.

🖊️ Agencies: CAA’s Roeg Sutherland told our Zurich Studio why he’s encouraged by new international frontiers.

🌎 Global breakouts: Jesse headed to Japan via Portugal to profile whacky slapstick gameshow Freeze.

🍿 Box Office: Joker: Folie à Deux dipped to a disappointing $114.8M global bow.

🏪 Setting up shop: Box to Box Films and Fremantle alums Samantha Lawrence and Jane Atkinson with Media MDs.

🤝 Done deal: Amazon finalized its acquisition of rival Indian streamer MX Player.

🇺🇸 ElectionLine: Stormy Daniels and Boris Johnson are Channel 4’s starry draws for its U.S. election coverage.

🎥 Trailer: For Nautilus, the big-budget Jules Verne retelling.

Melanie Goodfellow and Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s International Insider. It was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Jesse Whittock.