OPINION: A golden globe indeed

Nominees for this award season’s Golden Globes were announced last week, and in the two categories for Best Motion Picture, something interesting is happening.

In the twelve nominees which include “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” “Sinners,” “Bugonia,” “Blue Moon,” “One Battle After Another” and “Marty Supreme,” there are five movies which aren’t in the English language.

In the Drama category, Iranian film “It Was Just an Accident,” Brazillian film “The Secret Agent” and Norwegian film “Sentimental Value” were all nominated.

In the other half with Musical or Comedy, Korean film “No Other Choice” and the French-language “Nouvelle Vague” from American director Richard Linklater add on to an astounding year for recognizing foreign achievement.

Even the animated films have some good foreign representation. “Arco” and “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” are both French, and “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Infinity Castle” is, besides a wildly long title, an anime film from Japan.

This is unprecedented, especially from the Golden Globes which has mostly been concerned with Hollywood and not much else. It’s clear now more than ever that cinema, or at least prestige cinema, is becoming more global than the domination Hollywood and American cinema has enjoyed for over a century.

This forces me to revise a bit of my Academy Awards Best Picture predictions (for example, the lack of attention on “Train Dreams” points to Netflix focusing their campaign efforts on “Frankenstein”) but one thing is clear. This year’s selection of foreign films are reaching beyond their original countries.

What will be frustrating for the average moviegoer, especially those from Iowa, will be the wait to see what all the fuss is about. If you didn’t catch “It Was Just an Accident” or “Sentimental Value” already, you missed your chance for now.

Foreign films won’t be shown in local theaters, mostly because they don’t usually make much money, especially compared to Hollywood. Multiplexes looking for variety are the best bet, but the two arthouse theaters in Des Moines, The Varisty and the Fleur Cinema, both regularly show these special interest films.

Both “It Was Just an Accident” and “Sentimental Value” played in November, and it’ll be a while before they might return, at least until the Best Picture nominations are announced in January. By then, the Golden Globes will be over.

“The Secret Agent” is releasing this weekend (The Varsity is showing the whole 158 minute film starting Thursday), and “No Other Choice” is scheduled for a wider theatrical release at some point in mid-January (I luckily saw it early when I was at Iowa City’s Refocus Film Festival; it is very good).

“Nouvelle Vague” is available for viewing on Netflix at this very moment. Wow, that’s so much easier.

The other four besides “Nouvelle Vague” are all being distributed by Neon, which partners with Hulu to typically give six-month releases after their theatrical run. This can be shortened; last year’s Best Picture winner, “Anora,” was also distributed by Neon and was on Hulu two weeks after it won.

Neon will also release their movies on digital storefronts like Amazon Video and Apple TV before the Academy Awards, but rental prices will range somewhere between $10-20. “It Was Just an Accident” is available now and I’ll be watching it sometime this weekend.

Awards season silliness and this end-of-year rat race to cram so many movies into the final moments is exhausting, especially now that winter seems to have come early with more bite than I’m used to. I’ve mostly stopped going to movies near the end of this year for cost reasons, although hindsight will always make me regret doing so.

I am painfully aware of how my enjoyment of the movies is changing. I’ve become cynical about the survivability of theaters and have reluctantly adopted streaming services as the new wave. Perhaps if I lived in Des Moines, I wouldn’t be as pessimistic.

But the reality is that I’m an hour away and access is difficult. The fact that these foreign films can even find a place in Iowa is astounding (I’ve been monitoring FilmScene in Iowa City since my visit to Refocus, and, boy, do I regret not taking advantage of such a well-curated theater during my time at the University of Iowa).

Is it worth the drive to see any of these foreign films? I can give my recommendation for at least one of them, but to be honest, I don’t see the point in recommending any option at this point. The options aren’t accessible to an average person.

I can hope that trends can change for an average moviegoer, but I also surrender to the fact my interest in movies is undoubtedly higher than anyone else I speak to on a regular basis. My complaints won’t change the world.

That’s what excites me seeing foreign film recognized like at the Golden Globes. It gives a reason for theaters to support the weird and interesting, the obtuse and different. By turning something so homogenized like movies into a celebration of cultures unlike our own, that’s what creates powerful experiences.

Still, I hope the weather stays off us enough so I can make a drive or two.