I thought that I had loads of time to see all the movies that are being considered for Italy’s submission to the Oscars but it appears that I do not – the pick must be in the Academy office not later than 5 p.m. PT on Monday, October 3, 2011. I wish I could give some kind of educated opinion but instead I’ll just say that I’d love to see Italy send Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma to Hollywood. 
First of all the Academy Awards are ridiculous and not much more than a chance for a bunch of attention whore actors and other film people to congratulate themselves for doing what they have equated with curing cancer.
And second of all the foreign language awards are stupid because there is only one submission from each country and one award for dozens of countries, and without distinguishing between big and small countries. So that sucks.
And each country has its own arbitrary rules for selection a film to be submitted for that one prize. So, you know, it’s just amazing that I care at all about it.
But I do, and the fact that Italy has been picking completely unwinnable movies to submit has miraculously not stopped me from holding out hope for them this year.
Apparently Marco Bellocchio and Luca Guadagnino (two pretty sharp guys) are on the commission to decide and they’ll be announcing the winner on September 28.
Will it be:
Corpo celeste, by Alice Rohrwacher;
Nessuno mi può giudicare by Massimiliano Bruno;
Noi credevamo di Mario Martone,
Notizie degli scavi di Emidio Greco,
Vallanzasca – Gli angeli del male di Michele Placido
I Love Italian Everything 