by the El Reportero’s news services
Pope Francis.Spanish-speaking countries’ hopefuls for a Foreign Language Film Oscar have been eliminated from the race for the statuette.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday unveiled a list of nine features that advanced to the next round of voting in that category.
Those films are: “The Broken Circle Breakdown” (Belgium), “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” (Bosnia Herzegovina), “The Missing Picture” (Cambodia), “The Hunt” (Denmark), “Two Lives” (Germany), “The Grandmaster” (Hong Kong), “The Notebook” (Hungary), “The Great Beauty” (Italy), and “Omar” (Palestine).
The list will later be narrowed down to five nominees, to be announced on January 16.
Among the films that were part of an initial list of 76 films but which have now been eliminated were Spanish-language entries from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Spain and Uruguay, as well as Brazil’s submission.
The Chilean film “No,” directed by Pablo Larrain, made the shortlist of five Foreign Language Film nominees at the last Academy Awards ceremony in February, although the statuette was awarded to Michael Haneke’s “Amour.”
The 86th edition of the Oscars will be held on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
U.S. man wins picasso drawing valued at $1 million in raffle
A U.S. man paid 100 euros ($140) to enter an online raffle to raise funds for preservation efforts in Tyre, Lebanon, and wound up winning a Picasso drawing valued at $1 million.
The 1914 work “L’homme au Gibus” (“Man with Opera Hat”) was raffled off Wednesday evening among almost 50,000 people who participated in the drawing, and organizers collected some 5 million euros (about $7 million) for the preservation project, the promoter of the initiative, Peri Cochin, told Efe.
The winner of the Picasso was Jeffrey Goinviernonano, 25, an employee at a fire sprinkler firm in Pennsylvania.
Cochin, a French-Lebanese television host and producer, took two years to transform his idea – to buy a Picasso to raffle off and collect funds for the city of Tyre – into a reality.
The drawing was held at the Paris headquarters of Sotheby’s.
Getting to this point was “very difficult,” Cochin said, noting that it took him two years to obtain the necessary official authorization.
Olivier Picasso, the grandson of the Spanish artist, “helped us a lot in the promotion of the opera tion, because he found that the project was interesting and very innovative, just as his grandfather would have liked” and eventually Picasso’s heirs gave their official authorization to the effort, Cochin said.
Pope Francis documentary becomes Amazon Bestseller
A recent documentary on Pope Francis, “Francis: The Pope From The New World,” has become a bestseller on Amazon.com and at one point ranked number four in the documentary category.
“This documentary arrives as the world realizes that a very special man has assumed the leadership of the Catholic Church, and this begins — but does not end — with his gestures of humility and care for everyone,” Carl Anderson, an executive producer of the documentary, said Dec. 17.
Anderson said many of the details of the Pope’s life “remain largely unknown to the public,” including “the ways in which he has defended the voiceless and Catholic principles.”
“This documentary delves into those stories,” he said.
Pope Francis, formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is the first Pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit elected to the papacy. He has long been an advocate for those struggling economically, including those who lived in the slums of Buenos Aires. He also helped protect those endangered in Argentina’s Dirty War.
The documentary includes interviews with the Pope’s close friends, his fellow priests, his co-workers, his biographer, and the poor of Buenos Aires. It covers his personal life, including his family relations and his support for the San Lorenzo soccer team.
It also addresses how his work sometimes drew opposition from Argentina’s political elites.
The online retailer Amazon.com has had to reorder DVDs of the movie several times because it ran out of stock. It is presently selling the English-language DVD for $14.96. The DVD is also available in Spanish.
The documentary has been broadcast on U.S. cable television, and Mexican broadcasts are planned.
