Share

Oscar love for Amour

London - Amour, a searing portrait of old age from Austria's Michael Haneke, was lauded by Hollywood's movie elite on Thursday, receiving five Academy Award nominations including best foreign film and - unexpectedly - best picture.

The film stars octogenarian French acting greats Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a loving Parisian couple whose world is devastated by the wife's serious illness.

Unflinching and in French, it was a surprise best-picture nominee, and also received nominations for Haneke's direction, for original screenplay and for the performance of 85-year-old Riva.

Austria also scored an acting nomination, with Christoph Waltz up for best supporting actor for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

Waltz won the supporting actor prize for his turn as a loquacious Nazi in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

The other foreign-language nominees are 18th-century court saga A Royal Affair by Denmark's Nikolaj Arcel; child soldier drama War Witch by Canada's Kim Nguyen; seafaring adventure Kon-Tiki by Norway's Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg; and No by Chile's Pablo Larrain.

No tells the story of a Chilean ad agency that helped to oust dictator Augusto Pinochet through a clever marketing campaign around a 1988 referendum.

The film, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, was a surprise hit of the Cannes Film Festival and has since gathered accolades around the world.

Larrain said it struck a chord because it told an unusual story.

"Dictators are not usually ousted through democratic elections and this is a profoundly human story, which is resolved through things that have to do more with beauty than with horror," he said.

A Royal Affair is a tale of love and intrigue centred on a triangle involving an ailing Danish king, his queen and the monarch's forward-thinking physician, played by former Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen.

Kon-Tiki recreates explorer Thor Heyerdal's audacious 1947 journey across the Pacific Ocean on a balsa-wood raft.

The 101-day trip was designed to prove that South Americans could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbus times.

Costly Norwegian film

The $16m budget makes it one of the most expensive Norwegian movies ever made.

Directed by Montreal-born Nguyen, War Witch - known as Rebelle in French - follows a 12-year-old girl abducted by a rebel army.

It was filmed in Congo with a partly non-professional cast but set amid an unspecified conflict.

Its teenage star, Rachel Mwanza - who formerly lived on the streets of Kinshasa - won acting prizes at the Berlin and Tribeca film festivals.

Nguyen said the Oscar nomination was "a great privilege and an honour."

"I will always remember when Rachel Mwanza, after being the first African woman to ever win the Silver Bear for Best Actress [in Berlin], returned home to the Congolese streets of Kinshasa and was greeted by passionate chants and overwhelming pride," he said.

"So, in the case of War Witch, these recognitions do make a difference. They bring back pride to a nation that greatly needs it. "

Winners of the 85th Oscars will be announced 24 February during a ceremony at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE