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LOS ANGELES - Clint Eastwood, that most American of actors and directors, has a film nominated for a best-picture Oscar, Letters from Iwo Jima, that is in Japanese, a language he doesn't speak, and was shot in Iceland because it looks a lot like Iwo Jima but was cheaper.
Not to be outdone in globalising America's most famous film awards, another best picture nominee, Babel, was shot in four countries with actors speaking five languages and was written and directed by two of Mexico's most talented filmmakers.
To add to the Tower of Babel-like atmosphere at this year's Oscars, best-film nominee The Queen was shot in Britain about a crisis in the life of Queen Elizabeth and features a lone American actor, James Cromwell, because no Briton wanted to chance playing the often-mocked Prince Philip.
This year's Oscars are more global than ever including a large number of Britons and Mexicans who have received nominations.
Or as Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican director of Pan's Labyrinth said in a recent interview, borders in the film world seem to be disappearing just as real-life borders are becoming harder and harder to cross.
"It is a sort of beautiful contradiction. A world worried about protecting borders and frontiers now has film as the new Esperanto -- crossing all borders and being a universal language," said del Toro.
The Oscars have always been international, but this year the US film awards seem to have been particularly open to foreign invasion.
Seven of the 10 contenders for best actress and best supporting actress are foreigners, including best actress front-runner Helen Mirren.
If she takes home the Oscar for her portrayal of a shell-shocked Queen Elizabeth in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death, Mirren would be the first British actress to win the category since Emma Thompson in 1993 for Howards End.
As for the actors, three out of 10 are foreign-born, including dark-horse best actor contender Peter O'Toole of Britain for Venus. The last Briton to win this race was Welshman Anthony Hopkins in 1992 for The Silence of the Lambs.
In the cinematography race, four out of the five nominees hail from abroad: Hungarian Vilmos Zsigmond (The Black Dahlia), Britain's Dick Pope (The Illusionist), and Mexicans Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men) and Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth). Only Wally Pfister (The Prestige) was born in the United States.
A trio of Mexican directors are competing for various awards with the films Babel, Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men.
Babel picked up seven nominations -- second only to Dreamgirls with eight -- including a directing nod for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Del Toro's grim Spanish-language fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth followed with six nominations, including foreign-language feature.
And the British sci-fi thriller Children of Men scored three nominations, including an adapted screenplay mention for director Alfonso Cuaron.
Inarritu is one of three foreigners vying for best director, alongside long-shot Britons Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Paul Greengrass (United 93). In the last 10 years, the coveted award has gone to foreigners six times.
Oscar historian Robert Osborne has a theory as to why the foreign presence at the Oscars is so big this year:
"I just think it's like the whole world is melting into one form. I just think it's part of the change in the world."
"At one time, the Italians watched Italian films, French watched French films, the British made their own films and they all watched the Americans now and then. But now it's a melting pot, and I think that the Oscars reflect that.
"You've got a Mexican director directing a best picture nominee and you got an American director directing a film made entirely in Japanese etc."
The Oscars will be handed out on Monday (NZT).
- REUTERS
