The Reel World: Academy Award winning international films
In honor of the recent Academy Awards, here are the last five winners of Best International Feature Film including 2023’s winner. Don’t speak the language? Don’t worry, these all have English subtitles that can be turned on in the options section of the DVD/Blu-Ray menu. The library has all of these in our collection in Blu-Ray and DVD Format. Place them on hold today!
2023 – All Quiet on the Western Front (German)
Director: Edward Berger
"Germany, 1917. With dreams of serving the Fatherland and Kaiser Wilhelm II, idealistic 17-year-old Paul Bäumer and his chest-thumping schoolmates enlist en masse in the Imperial German Army three years after the outbreak of World War I. And with a mind aflame with patriotic fervor instilled by their jingoistic teacher's rousing speeches, the unripe defenders fantasize about performing heroic feats as they march into battle-scarred Northern France. Instead, the chaos of trench warfare and the horrors of war await the inexperienced brothers-in-arms, who now risk life and limb for the glory of Germany."As the irrefutable certainty of death crushes the companions' romantic visions, Paul must fight tooth and nail to stay alive until the Armistice of 11 November 1918 takes effect and the guns on the Western Front fall silent. The film by director Edward Berger is based on the world-renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque." –Nick Riganas
Awards: 4 Oscar Awards, 33 other awards & 91 nominations
2022 – Drive My Car (Japanese)
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
"Two years after his wife's unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production's premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke's late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins - with the help of his driver - to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind." –Nick RiganasAwards: 1 Oscar Award, 85 other awards & 113 nominations
2021 – Another Round (Danish)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
"Amid an ongoing midlife crisis, Martin, Tommy, Nikolaj, and Peter--a close-knit group of friends, colleagues, and high school teachers--find themselves faced with stale careers, failing marriages, and the cruel certainty of lost youth. Then, after a long, booze-fueled night in town, the companions hit on the idea to keep themselves constantly semi-inebriated, inspired by an untried scientific theory claiming that when people always maintain a golden 0.05% Blood Alcohol Concentration, they are more relaxed, poised, and self-confident. Without delay, the grizzled friends set rules and started observing the effects of sustaining that perfect, low-level buzz, one glass at a time. However, are they prepared for the dangers and the negative psychological impact of the intoxicating social experiment?" –Nick RiganasAwards: 1 Oscar Award, 58 other awards & 74 nominations
2020 – Parasite (Korean)
Director: Joon-Ho Bong
"Jobless, penniless, and, above all, hopeless, the unmotivated patriarch, Ki-taek, and his equally unambitious family--his supportive wife, Chung-sook; his cynical twentysomething daughter, Ki-jung, and his college-age son, Ki-woo--occupy themselves by working for peanuts in their squalid basement-level apartment. Then, by sheer luck, a lucrative business proposition will pave the way for an ingeniously insidious scheme, as Ki-woo summons up the courage to pose as an English tutor for the teenage daughter of the affluent Park family. Now, the stage seems set for an unceasing winner-take-all class war. How does one get rid of a parasite?" – Nick RiganasAwards: 4 Oscar Awards, 303 other awards & 271 nominations
2019 – Roma (Spanish)
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
"In Mexico City's upscale Colonia Roma district, a quiet but swift change is on its way. Pivoting around Dr Antonio's middle-bourgeoisie family, the lives of two women--the devoted live-in maid and housekeeper of Mixteco heritage, Cleo, and her academic employer, Sofía--become inextricably intertwined, as a seemingly ordinary business trip to Quebec paves the way for a bitter heartbreak. Over a span of one long year--from the quadrennial 1970s World Cup to the blood-drenched Corpus Christi Massacre--the unforeseen and sometimes unbearable complications of love; a new life amid death, and an almost stubborn will to find good in evil, pepper Sofía and Cleo's daily routines. And before irrevocable transformations and startling revelations, life always finds a way." –Nick RiganasAwards: 3 Oscar Awards, 249 other awards & 219 nominations
