AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the eighteenth category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released or played at film festivals in the United States within the past year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
Collective (Romania), Les Miserables (France), And Then We Danced (Sweden), Ema (Chile), Honeymood (Israel), Sky Raiders (Israel), Welcome to the USA (Kazakhstan), The Art of Waiting (Israel), Asia (Israel)

The winner:
Corpus Christi (Poland) conveyed the story of a man so enraptured by

Other nominees:
Alice Junior (Brazil)
A Thousand Cuts (Philippines)
Once Upon a Time in Venezuela (Venezuela)
The Best Years (Italy)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 13th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

Honorable mentions:
Shooting Life (Israel), A Faithful Man (France), Pain and Glory (Spain)

The winner:
Parasite (South Korea) was a marvelous look at competing classes and the secrets people keep buried and others don’t even think to look for in plain sight.

Other nominees:
The Unorthodox (Israel)
Red Cow (Israel)
Redemption (Israel)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 12th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

Honorable mentions:
Working Woman (Israel), The Cousin (Israel), Slut in a Good Way (France), The Cakemaker (Israel), Shoplifters (Japan)

The winner:
Roma (Mexico) turned what could have been a bland, uninviting narrative into an imperative immersion in its characters’ lives.

Other nominees:
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Burning (South Korea)
Beauty and the Dogs (Tunisia)
Shelter (Israel)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 11th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

Honorable mentions:
Glory (Bulgaria), In the Fade (Germany), The Passion of Augustine (Canada)

The winner:
The Wedding Plan (Israel) was a marvelous wedding-centered follow-up to “Fill the Void” for director Rama Burshtein that took a deeply comedic look at one woman’s unconventional search for happiness.

Other nominees:
The Women’s Balcony (Israel)
In Between (Israel)
Free and Easy (China)
Axolotl Overkill (Germany)

Oscar nominees like “The Insult” and “A Fantastic Woman” will be nominated next year in major categories since they were not released in 2018 in the United States.

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 10th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

Honorable mentions:
An Eye for Beauty, Me Myself and Her, Mia Madre, My Golden Days, Sand Storm, Tanna, The Measure of a Man, Things to Come

The winner:
Elle (France) was a unique revenge thriller, both suspenseful and funny, with a magnetic central character and some of the most superb dialogue and well-staged scenes seen on film in a long time.

Other nominees:
Julieta (Spain)
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
Beyond the Mountains and Hills (Israel)
One Week and a Day (Israel)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 8th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

Honorable mentions:
Brides, Difret, Leviathan, Rocks in My Pockets, Two Days, One Night

The winner:
Wild Tales (Argentina), which didn’t get a U.S. release until 2015 after showing at the Sundance Film Festival, was a spectacular example of what a creative format can do, representing anger in the most entertaining and memorable of cinematic ways.

Other nominees:
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem(Israel)
Zero Motivation (Israel)
Blind (Norway)
The Way He Looks (Brazil)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 7th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year.

The winner:
Blue is the Warmest Color (France) – also honored in other categories – was a stunning and heartfelt drama about the deep connection between two young women.

Other nominees:
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Past (Iran)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the sixteenth category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year. Therefore, films like “Footnote,” had I seen them earlier, would have been eligible last year.

The winner:
Fill the Void (Israel) was an honest, emotional, moving look at the inside of a tight-knit religious community.

Other nominees:
Amour (Austria)
Lore (Australia)
No (Chile)
Rust and Bone (France)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the nineteenth category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year. Therefore, films like “In a Better World” and “When We Leave,” had I seen them earlier, would have been eligible last year.

The winner:
Turn Me On, Goddamit (Norway) was bold, creative, uninhibited, and deeply entertaining.

Other nominees:
A Separation (Iran)
Happy, Happy (Norway)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (USA)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the eighteenth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. Click here to see previous years of this category. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year. Therefore, films like “The Band’s Visit” and “The Counterfeiters,” had I seen them earlier, would have been eligible last year.

The winner:
Broken Embraces (Spain) was one of Pedro Almodovar’s strongest films, probing the world of Spanish cinema and capturing the heart of a writer and his muse.

Other nominees:
The White Ribbon (Germany)
A Prophet (France)
Police, Adjective (Romania)
Wild Grass (France)

AFT Awards: Best Foreign Film

This is the eighteenth category of the 2nd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order. For this category, I consider eligible only films that were released in their native countries within the past year. Therefore, films like “The Band’s Visit” and “The Counterfeiters,” had I seen them earlier, would have been eligible last year.

The winner:
Waltz with Bashir (Israel) wasn’t just the best foreign film of the year, it was the best film of the year, and proves that Israel really is churning out some great movies these days.

Other nominees:
A Christmas Tale (France)
Lost Islands (Israel)
Reprise (Norway)
Tell No One (France)