First Year for “Honor System” on Foreign Language

It’s pretty crazy that voters will now treat foreign films as they treat every other category – the honor system. They’re moving in the wrong direction, I figure. The hard part is getting the voters to see all of the movies.  The only good thing about the Oscars was that voters had to see all five films before voting in Foreign and in Doc.  Either way, Anne Thompson believes the sleeper winner might be The Broken Circle Breakdown (now streaming on iTunes), not The Hunt or The Great Beauty:

This is the first year all the Academy members get to vote on the honor system for best foreign film. If I were to pick a foreign Oscar winner this year on the basis of what the entire Academy would like best, it would be Belgian entry and European Film Awards Best Actress-winner “Broken Circle Breakdown,” a sexy and tragic musical family drama adapted from a stage musical, featuring bluegrass music. Up to now, it has not played in many theaters and has not been widely viewed by the Academy at large–who just got their five foreign screeners yesterday.