News

Hard Road For Israeli Film Pulled From Oscars

Oct 30, 2007 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences disqualified the official Israeli entry in the Foreign Film category because its inclusion of English dialog. Producers of The Band’s Visit – a tale about a small orchestra of Egyptian policemen touring Israel – tell the New York Times that the film has 22 minutes of English, and 18 minutes of Hebrew and Arabic.  While acclaimed by critics, Band was snubbed by Middle East Film festivals. Israel substituted anti-war film Beaufort after the disqualification.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/movies/31band.html?ref=movies

 
Note from author Robert Marich. AMPAS rules require foreign language and local artistic control. In 1992, Uruguay’s A Place in World was disqualified by AMPAS after being selected as one of five finalists for Best Foreign Film due to “insufficient Uruguayan artistic control,” according to Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook. Local film organizations choose their country Oscar submissions and those selection processes are often cloaked with intrigue, though AMPAS generally takes a hands-off approach, except to enforce its basic eligibility rules.