One Category at a Time: Documentary

Since the Academy opened up voting in Best Documentary Feature to the entire membership two years ago, the results of that change have been immediately transparent. In the past, when only the small turnout of members at official screenings could cast a ballot, the winning documentary would usually be one that tackles a "serious" subject. But with the first two winners under this new regime being relatively lightweight music docs (Searching for Sugar Man and 20 Feet from Stardom), it seems to suggest that this category will now always lean the way of populist crowdpleasers so long as every Academy member has a say.

Of course, there's no guarantee that such an audience hit is going to be nominated every single year, just as there's no guarantee that the buzziest title will be one dealing with feathery subject matter. You need look no further than this year's frontrunner for proof that doc-lovers can still flock to movies that bill themselves as Important with a capital 'I'.

One Category at a Time: Documentary

After last year's high watermark in the category, this year's contest for Best Documentary is a puzzlingly vague one to try and anticipate. Presumed frontrunner and critical darling Project Nim was surprisingly left out of the discussion (although James Marsh already has an Oscar, so I won't lose too much sleep over it). What we're left with is a quintet of films which have received little precursor attention apart from three collective guild citations.

My Awards nominations: Foreign Film

As it is with the documentaries, my opportunities to take in gripping world cinema are forever limitted by their timid release startegies. I consider myself lucky to be able to see the ones that I do, and even luckier if they happen to be good. So if these change at all before (or even after) I announec my winners, it's because I've been forced to play catch-up with foreign titles only just breaking into my local theatres. For the time being, are the five best Foreign Films I've seen this year:

Bullhead (Michael Roskam):

Thanks especially to a brooding lead performance from a bulked-up Matthias Schoenaerts, this starkly shot, slow-boiling crime drama keeps the viewer's attention firmly locked on its tragic central figure without allowing the numerous less robust subplots to become distracting. Tough, but elegant, film making.

Miss Bala (Gereardo Naranjo):

Naranjo perpetually keeps us as confused and uncertain as our frightened heroine is regarding the complicated politics of the drug dealers and their constantly shifting allegiances. We're never sure what chain of events will occur next. We only know that it'll be violent. He relishes in long takes that all look terrific.

Pina (Wim Wenders):

If you're a fan of dance, then you'll be excited and invigorated by Wim Wenders' unique 3D ode to the late Pina Bausch, renowned interpretive dancer and choreographer. You've never seen dance done quite like this on film. Gene Kelly himself would be impressed!

A Separation (Asghar Farhadi):

An exceptional domestic drama about the failure of human relationships, and not just marital ones as the title implies. It's more about the problems affecting all people in Iran than just the characters in the story, told with an polished aesthetic technique that captures the best of every performance, and there are a lot of them.

La Soga (Josh Crook, Manny Perez):
Originally a TIFF premiere in 2009, Josh Crook's gritty Dominican crime saga got a miniscule release in 2011 and more or less fell into obscurity. But it's a swell thriller all the same, with a caustic undertone about the ills of a society in which innocent children are schooled by a society built on crime, like piglets being raised for the slaughter.