Oscars: 'Departures' Takes Foreign Language Film

Best Foreign Language Film:
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revance
Waltz With Bashir Winner: Departures Pardon the pun, but this is the first real departure from the script tonight, with Japan's official entry in the Foreign Language category upsetting Watlz with Bashir, which had loads of momentum coming into the Academy Awards. But this is one of the great Oscar categories simply becuase it exposes hundreds of millions of people to films like Departures, which they'd otherwise not be familiar with.

Comments

[yysyke]

To me as an Israeli film maker, this was a great disappointment. Even though I have not seen departures, I think that Waltz with Bashir was unique, daring and new, and dealt with an extremely important political subject that is so relevant for our world today. But as in some cases, Hollywood has proven again that it would rather ignore reality in it's prizes. IF it is for political reasons, to me it seems strange that the Germans get their second Academy Award in a row for a subject related to the Holocaust. Not only have they created the trauma for the Jewish people and themselves, they also win Oscars for it...

[Get The Big Picture]

I haven't seen Departures, either, and I can only say that I can't believe it's better and more riveting than Bashir. There must be something to it, though, because in these categories that aren't as heavily campaigned, it really does come down to who saw the film, and since most voters would have been exposed to Bashir throughout the year, Departures must have surely blown them away.