Now for our fourth entry this week, Foreign Language Film, a category that sometimes is easily predictable and other times is incredibly esoteric. We try our best with limited knowledge of the nominated films to pick a winner.

KEY:

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• Biutiful – Mexico (O)
• Dogtooth – Greece
• In a Better World – Denmark (O) (O) (O)
• Incendies – Canada
• Hors la Lois (Outside the Law) – Algeria

Runners-Up

• Biutiful – Mexico (H) (H) (H)
• In a Better World – Denmark (H)

Wesley Lovell: My pick here is more a stab in the dark than it is something tangible I can easily quantify, but as frequently as the Golden Globes are wrong, sometimes they key into something in this category that manages to carry over to the Oscars. In a Better World wasn’t on anyone’s radar prior to the Globes, but now that we’ve heard about it, we can’t help but think this may be a good bet on Oscar night. Still, this category offers up plenty of surprises, so what is selected often tells us how off things are. For instance, despite critics’ plaudits, this rather unusual film is very unlikely to pick up a prize on Oscar night, just because it’s a bit outside the Academy’s comfort zone. Hors la Loi might seem feasible on paper, but it’s nomination is likely to be its only reward. Incendies would be Canada’s second winner were it to be selected, but I don’t foresee that happening.

That puts the competition between Javier Bardem’s Best Actor-nominated feature Biutiful and In a Better World. Both films have a shot and were voters not required to see all productions, the Best Actor nomination would catapult Biutiful into first place. The problem for In a Better World is that the Golden Globes, while pushing a few films towards nominations, they aren’t great with wins. Still, the concept behind Denmark’s entry suggests it may be the film to beat.

Peter J. Patrick: I see this as a race between the Danish and Mexican entries, Suzanne Bier’s In a Better World and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful. Both directors are world-famous artists with years of award winning work behind them. They both have a history of making melancholy, but strangely uplifting films. See I haven’t seen either film, I can only guess which one will strike voters as the more deserving. I’m guessing it will be In a Better World, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see either win. However, since the Foreign Film category has such a history of surprises, I wouldn’t really be surprised if they both lost to a film I’m totally unfamiliar with.

Tripp Burton: This is a category that can pull a lot of surprises out, but I think that the voters will go for the film with another major nomination (Best Actor) and the biggest name director. Biutiful has gotten a lot of good buzz around it, stars an Oscar winner, is directed by an Oscar nominee and is the kind of wrenching character study that the Academy can really get around. If they are looking for something else, In a Better World won the Golden Globe and many consider it the front-runner here. Dogtooth has the critical support, but is far too out-there and disturbing to garner many votes, but if you want a true dark horse, I think Outside the Law could attract some voters.