The messiest Oscars category

Summary

Today, Explained: The Messiest Oscars Category

Episode Release Date: February 28, 2025
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram and Noel King
Podcast Network: Vox Media Podcast Network

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Introduction

In this episode of Today, Explained, hosts Sean Rameswaram and Noel King delve into the complexities surrounding the Oscars' International Film category. The spotlight falls on Germany's unexpected submission, "Seed of the Sacred Fig", a poignant Iranian drama filmed in secret within Iran's repressive landscape. This nomination has stirred discussions about the inherent challenges and controversies of the International Film category at the Oscars.

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Spotlight on "Seed of the Sacred Fig"

"Seed of the Sacred Fig" stands out as Germany's submission to the Oscars' International Film category. The film is a deep exploration of an Iranian family's turmoil amid the country's stringent political climate. Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, an Iranian director living in exile, the movie offers a rare glimpse into the suppressed voices within Iran's cinematic landscape.

Interview with Mohammad Rasoulof

Rasoulof provides an insightful account of the arduous process behind the film's creation. Filming covertly in Tehran presented numerous challenges, from limited equipment to the constant threat of censorship and repression.

• Censorship and Secrecy: Rasoulof explains,
  “The Islamic Republic is a despotic and repressive regime and it has implemented widespread censorship on all parts of the society. It does not allow any voices that are critical of it to be heard. Voices like myself who make critical movies. And so this is why the film had to be made in secret” ([00:00]).

• Filming Under Surveillance: Addressing the misconception that secret filming primarily involves interior shots, Rasoulof reveals,
  “...there are indeed shots of this family eating dinner outside of a restaurant... How do you do that secretly?... The underground cinema in Iran tries not to be seen and tries to have films that are not impacted in their quality by the fact that they are underground” ([03:55]).

Directing Remotely from Prison

Rasoulof's role as director was uniquely challenging as he was incarcerated during the film's production. He coordinated the filmmaking process remotely, relying on monitors and assistants to communicate his vision to the crew and actors.

• Remote Direction:
  “I was constantly watching a monitor when I was afar... I was communicating through sound. Everything that was happening I could hear and I could tell them what to do through sound” ([07:11]).

• Emotional Struggles: The director candidly shares the emotional toll of working under such pressure, with the constant fear of repercussions:
  “I was under a lot of pressure. I was really stressed out, and at any moment anything could have happened” ([07:11]).

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Germany's Submission: A Strategic Move

Despite its deep Iranian roots, "Seed of the Sacred Fig" is Germany's submission to the Oscars. Rasoulof elucidates the reasons behind this decision, highlighting the intertwined fates of the filmmaker and his country of exile.

• Exile and Support: Rasoulof recounts his escape from Iran and subsequent relocation to Germany, where his family resided.
  “After I got to a neighboring country, I contacted the German consulate... my post-production all happened in Germany” ([08:42]).

• Symbolic Significance: By nominating the film, Germany sends a powerful message of support to filmmakers under oppressive regimes:
  “People who chose to nominate this film on behalf of Germany to the Oscars gave a very strong message to the other filmmakers outside. And that is that there is always going to be hope for filmmakers who are working under a lot of pressure” ([08:42]).

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Critique of the Oscars' International Film Category

Transitioning from Rasoulof's story, the episode addresses the broader issues plaguing the Oscars' International Film category, featuring insights from Nate Jones of Vulture.

Key Issues Highlighted by Nate Jones

1. One Film Per Country Rule:

   • The Oscars require each country to submit only one film, limiting the representation of countries with multiple outstanding films.
   • Quote:
     “Every country in the world submits one film... if there's two great films from Switzerland in one year, doesn't matter, only one” ([14:56]).

2. Selection Bias and Governance:

   • The selection process often involves non-Academy members, including government officials, leading to potential biases, especially against films critical of their home governments.
   • Quote:
     “The people deciding who submits these films... are often government ministers from overseas governments” ([14:56]).

3. Cultural and Production Complexities:

   • Modern cinema often blurs international lines, making it problematic to associate a film strictly with one country.
   • Quote:
     “The modern world of cinema is so blurred in terms of international boundaries that... pin-pointing a specific film and saying this specific film belongs to this specific country doesn't always make sense” ([17:34]).

4. Impact on Critical Films:

   • Films that are critically acclaimed but politically sensitive may struggle to gain recognition due to their submission country's restrictions.
   • Example:
     The controversy around France not selecting "Anatomy of a Fall" despite its critical acclaim, possibly due to political statements made by the director ([16:44]).

Debate on the Category's Necessity

The discussion extends to whether the International Film category remains relevant or needs reform:

• Arguments for Reform:

  • Adjusting the selection process to empower Academy members rather than country-appointed officials.
  • Proposed Solution:
    “Why not put those people [Academy committee experts] in charge of also determining what the best film from each country would be?” ([24:16]).

• Arguments for Maintaining the Category:

  • Preserving the category provides a dedicated space to honor non-English language films and offers a window into global cinema.
  • Quote:
    “I think having this category still lets a film like Seed of the Sacred Fig... this is a place to celebrate that film” ([25:48]).

• Alternative Suggestions:

  • Some propose merging international films into broader categories or eliminating the category altogether, though this remains a contentious point.

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Historical Context and Ongoing Debates

The episode touches upon the historical controversies and ongoing debates related to the International Film category:

• Past Eligibility Rules:

  • Films previously needed to be in the submitting country's language, a rule abolished in the late 2000s due to its restrictive nature.

• Cultural Insensitivity Concerns:

  • Critics argue that the one-country-one-film rule can marginalize exceptional films from countries with robust film industries.

• Oscar Voting Reforms:

  • Recent expansions of the Academy's membership have led to increased international influence, blurring the lines between domestic and international categories.

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Conclusion: The Future of International Recognition at the Oscars

As the episode wraps up, the hosts and contributors reflect on the evolving landscape of international cinema within the Oscars framework. The nomination of "Seed of the Sacred Fig" under Germany's banner not only highlights the film's artistic merit but also underscores the systemic challenges within the International Film category. The ongoing discourse suggests a need for thoughtful reforms to better accommodate the dynamic and interconnected nature of global filmmaking.

Final Remarks from Hosts:

• Acknowledgement of the nominees and winners, emphasizing the global nature of the Oscars.
• Encouragement for listeners to engage with and support international cinema.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Mohammad Rasoulof on Censorship:
  “The Islamic Republic is a despotic and repressive regime and it has implemented widespread censorship...” ([00:00]).

• Rasoulof on Filming Exteriors Secretly:
  “We learned how to be seen and how to have the exterior shots... The underground cinema in Iran tries not to be seen...” ([03:55]).

• Rasoulof on Directing Remotely:
  “I was communicating through sound... we ended up having a very good and close collaboration” ([07:11]).

• Nate Jones on Selection Bias:
  “The people deciding who submits these films... are often government ministers from overseas governments” ([14:56]).

• Nate Jones on Cultural Blurring:
  “The modern world of cinema is so blurred in terms of international boundaries...” ([17:34]).

• Nate Jones on Category's Importance:
  “I think having this category still lets a film like Seed of the Sacred Fig... this is a place to celebrate that film” ([25:48]).

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This episode of Today, Explained provides a comprehensive examination of the hurdles and intricacies within the Oscars' International Film category, using "Seed of the Sacred Fig" as a case study to illuminate broader systemic issues. Through in-depth interviews and critical analysis, listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the interplay between global politics, artistic expression, and award adjudication.

Transcript

[Host]

The Oscars are this Sunday and of all the films nominated, only one of them was filmed in secret. It's called the Seed of the Sacred Fig. It's about an Iranian family at odds with each other over the country's repressive policies. It was shot in Iran. It's got Iranian actors, it's got an Iranian director. It's very much about Iran, but it's Germany's submission to the Oscars. The director of this movie, Muhammad Rasolluf, is in exile, but we caught up with him in New York City to ask him what it's like to make a movie secretly and why Germany is repping this super Iranian movie. We're doing the Oscars today. Explains style I can say to my.

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[Host]

Credit. 4 Galaxy S25 Ultra the AI companion that does the heavy lifting. So you can do you get [e-mail] compatible with select apps. Requires Google Gemini account. Results may vary based on input. Check responses for accuracy. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. You are listening to Today. Explain. I'm Mohammed Rasuluf and you can tell me Muhammad. That's just about all the English we got out of the Seed of the Sacred Figs. Director the rest of our conversation was done through a translator who was with him in his New York City hotel. We started with the craziest thing about this movie that it shot in secret in Tehran.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

Well, of course, the power structure in Iran. The Islamic Republic is a despotic and repressive regime and it has implemented widespread censorship on all parts of the society. It does not allow any voices that are critical of it to be heard. Voices like myself who make critical movies. And so this is why the film had to be made in secret, because we are trying to get our voices out and they're not allowing the voices to be heard.

[Host]

When people in our audience hear that this movie was filmed in secret in Iran, they might imagine, oh, there were a lot of interior shots, you know, scenes set inside buildings, scenes set inside apartments, whatever it might be. That's how you film a movie secretly. But I was surprised when watching it that there are indeed shots of, you know, this family, that the movie's about eating dinner outside of a restaurant. You know, there's shots of people driving around Tehran. How do you do that secretly? Obviously, you have cameras when you're filming outside.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

Yes, of course. At first we had limited equipment and we had to be inside and have interior shots. But gradually we learned how to be seen and how to have the exterior shots. It's like wearing clothes. You try to protect yourself that way. The underground cinema in Iran tries not to be seen and tries to have films that are not impacted in their quality by the fact that they are underground.

[Host]

This movie, the seed of the Sacred Fig, it follows a family being torn apart. A father who's part of the sort of establishment in Tehran and his supportive wife and then their two daughters who are unhappy with the system and eager to join young women protesting in the streets. And it's very much set during the Mahsa Amini protests from a few years ago. Why did you want to set a movie during those protests? And how did you come up with the idea for this family where all of the tensions we were seeing in the streets in Tehran were sort of manifested in this family unit?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

As you said yourself, this is a story of a family who live together, whose members live together, but they think very differently from one another. This could be a difference of generations. It could be the fight between tradition and modernity. But the women's movement in Iran is very old, and it's not only contained to the Women Life Freedom movement. Of course, the backdrop of this film is the movement of women in Iran, which is very much rooted. But this movement also shows the awareness of the new generation and their way of use of the world as a network these days through social media and through the Internet.

[Host]

Where were you during those protests in the year 2022?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

It was the last time that I was arrested, and I had been in prison when the movement happened. It was a few months into my arrest, and I was following the events of the movement in prison.

[Host]

What were you imprisoned for?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

For my previous films and for what I had written on social media about social and political events.

[Host]

And that's why you not only filmed this movie secretly, but you were also directing it remotely. You weren't allowed to make a movie in Iran, so you were Never on the set of your own movie. How does that even work?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

The most important complication was how I was going to direct from at this. I was constantly watching a monitor when I was afar and the monitor was on set. And I also had two assistants who were present on set. One of them was my liaison with the actors, with the artistic team, and the other was my liaison with the technical team. And I was communicating through sound. Everything that was happening I could hear and I could tell them what to do through sound. And technically it was a little difficult, but we got used to it as we went on. And in the end we ended up having a very good and close collaboration. And some of the scenes actually it worked better. But the other complication I had was how to keep my focus. I was under a lot of pressure. I was really stressed out, and at any moment anything could have happened. So we were always in a state of in between hope and hopelessness.

[Host]

Omido no midi besarmi porti. And now you very well may win an Oscar for this film that you shot in secret, remotely in Iran. But of course, the country that wins this Oscar, if it indeed wins, is Germany. Why is it Germany?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

Yes, of course. Well, when I was in jail and I was released, my family was in Germany and I no longer could work in Iran. I no longer could make films. And I decided that I had to leave because otherwise I had to go to jail and play the role of the victim. And I did not want to be a victim of the censorship. So I decided to leave Iran through the mountains, through a very, very difficult trip. And after I got to a neighboring country, I contacted the German consulate and they knew that my family was in Ger. So they helped me travel to Germany. And in addition to that, my post production all happened in Germany. The editing process and my actors, after they left Iran, they also went to Germany and they started living there. The budget of the film also partly came from Germany, but there is also more meaning to this for me. People who chose to nominate this film on behalf of Germany to the Oscars gave a very strong message to the other filmmakers outside. And that is that there is always going to be hope for filmmakers who are working under a lot of pressure. And I also think that the film has a similar fate to my own fate, and that is because I'm in a Iranian. I'm traveling with German documents, and so is the film. The film was made in Iran, but it is now traveling around with German identity and documents.

[Host]

Mohammad, thank you so much for joining us. I'm not in the Academy, but I hope you win an Oscar on Sunday. Thank you.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

Thanks.

[Host]

Mohammed Rasulef. You can call him Mohammed. His translator was Shaida Dayani. The movie's the seat of the Sacred fig and it's nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film. But some say Best International Film is the messiest category at the Oscars. We're gonna find out why when we're back on today. Expl.

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[Host]

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[Advertiser]

Nate so there are a couple things wrong with the international film category. So basically how the international film category works is that the award does not go to a director. It does not go to a filmmaker. It goes to a country. And so the way it works is that every country in the world submits one film. So dozens, sometimes hundreds of countries, they submit their films to the Oscars and you only get one. So if there's two great films from Switzerland in one year, doesn't matter, only one. The second big issue is that the people deciding who submits these films to the Oscars are not Academy members. They are often artists, but often government ministers from overseas governments. And so one of the things you quite often see in the best international film race is that any film that is sort of remotely critical of certain governments from certain countries just have zero percent chance of getting it. Unless, as we are seeing this year, they can kind of get rescued in a way by just sort of the lucky happenstance of being coated co produced by a country that is not the film they are set in. So that is what's happened with Seed of the Sacred Fig where you know, they're quite lucky. I was talking to an Oscar strategist last week that they said, you know, the Academy is super duper lucky that that film had a German production company so that it was able to be submitted by Germany because it would have been just a terrible look if this very well acclaimed film with this amazing story behind it just couldn't get nominated for the Oscars because it was too critical of its own government. Like, that's a bad look.

[Host]

Okay, so some of the issues we're talking about here include that countries can only submit one movie. Who decides which movie that is? Anything else? That's like sort of a sticking point in the international feature category.

[Advertiser]

There's also kind of the nagging question of does it make sense to identify specific films with specific countries anymore? Like, as we're seeing with Seed of the Sacred Fig, it is an Iranian and German co production. There's an amazing film that wasn't submitted by India called All We Imagine is Light, that was an Indian French co production. Emilia Perez is a film that, you know, takes place in Mexico, has an international cast, but was filmed in France. So it is the French submission. Are you English?

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

No, I'm not English. Why not? Because you.

[Advertiser]

You are pretty. The modern world of cinema is so blurred in terms of international boundaries that sort of pinpointing a specific film and saying this specific film belongs to this specific country doesn't always make sense.

[Host]

How modern an issue is this at the Oscars? Is this, like a 2025 concern, or was this always an issue in the history of this category?

[Advertiser]

This is an issue that's come up in the past, I want to say, like, 15 years, in response to another problem that they used to have, which was that films had to take place in the language of the submitting country.

[Host]

Huh.

[Advertiser]

You know, you can see all the ways that that would kind of run into issues. You know, if you make a film about immigrants in, say, a European country, and it is mostly told in the language of the country that they came from, suddenly that movie is not eligible to be nominated. They got rid of that rule in the late 2000s, which I think was a good change to make. But then now, downstream of that, we have this other kind of weird situation.

[Host]

I know the Oscars, the Grammys, all these big award shows, they do institute change when there's a big enough controversy. You know, the Oscars have gotten a lot of flack for, like, women directors not getting nominated, and now they're trying to do better. The Grammys have gotten a lot of heat for not being diverse enough, and now they're adding lots of diversity to their academy. Has there not been a big enough controversy in the international film category to, you know, institute Some changes here, or have there been some over the years?

[Advertiser]

Well, it's interesting. I think one of the things that we are seeing is a result of the reforms that the Academy made to their membership.

[Sean Ramstorm]

On behalf of the Academy, congratulations to all the nominees and Oscar winners. You are part of a community that spans a century. Not just a Hollywood community or an American community, but a global one, filled with storytellers, domestic and international, one that is becoming more inclusive and diverse with each passing day.

[Advertiser]

So if you remember, in the wake of OscarsSoWhite, the Academy really expanded how many people it invited per year. I think it's now about half of the membership has been invited since 2016. And if you remember the headlines for them, expanding the membership, it was, we are going to get a lot more women in and we're going to get a lot more people of color in. And then kind of in a little asterisk below them, it was. And we will also get a lot more international voters in. But as we've seen in the results in the past decade or so, the international voters are the ones who have had the biggest, most obvious effect where it is now sort of no longer a surprise that a foreign language film would get nominated for Best Picture. In fact, this year we have two nominated for Best Picture for the first time ever, just because there's so many more international voters. That has kind of increased the salience of the international film category, where it used to be. That category was kind of a little sidebar to the main competition. And now increasingly, what we're seeing is films that are competing in international film, they are competing all across the ballot. You know, Emilia Perez, the French submission, led the field with 13 nominations.

[Host]

Hello.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

Very nice to meet you. I'd like to know about sex change operations.

[Advertiser]

I see, I see, I see men to woman, a woman to men, men.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

To woman, from penis to vagina.

[Advertiser]

And as we saw last year, not getting selected doesn't doom you. There was a little controversy last year over Justine tries Anatomy of a Fall, which was a very popular, critically acclaimed French film, won the Palme d'or, but was not selected as the French submission. You complain about the life that you chose. You are not a victim. Not at all. Your generosity concealed something dirtier and meaner. And there was a lot of scuttlebutt over why that was. People think it was because the director criticized Emmanuel Macron in her Palme d'or acceptance speech. But anyway, it wasn't selected. And that kind of turned out to not really matter much. It still Got nominated for best Picture. It got nominated for best director at one screenplay. So, you know, it still did very well. But in general, yeah, what we are seeing is like the best international film category is kind of like a handhold on a rock ledge. And, you know, you start from that and then you kind of move up into these other categories.

[Host]

You know, all of a sudden, remembering when Parasite won best Picture and the winner is a movie from South Korea.

[Advertiser]

What the hell was that all about?

[Host]

The once and current, once again president actually had some thoughts about it. We got enough problems with South Korea, with trade on top of it. They give him the best movie of the year. Was it good?

[Advertiser]

I don't know.

[Host]

Ed said that Hollywood had lost its way if a foreign movie were winning best Picture. Did he have a point?

[Advertiser]

It's funny. I'll put it this way. That opinion is certainly shared by some old guard members of Hollywood, and they make the point that every country kind of has its own Oscars, right? France has the Cesars, Spain has the Goyas, and, you know, the Cesars and the Goyas don't give out all their awards to American and British films. So they're like, these countries have their own awards. Why can't the Oscars be for American films? And I understand that. And it is a debate that has happened, honestly, throughout Oscar history. It goes back as far as, you know, the 1940s when you would have British films. I believe it was Laurence Olivier's Hamlet won best Picture in the late 1940s.

[Host]

For in that sleep of Death.

[Mohammad Rasoulof]

What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil? And the winner, Hamlet, J. Arthur Rank, two City Stone.

[Advertiser]

And you saw very similar complaints where people said, you know, how dare they? You know, we help them win the war, and then their movies come over and steal best Picture from us. So this is a debate that has been going on for a while. But what I say when people bring that complaint up to me, my point is that. But I don't think it diminishes the Oscars to include the best films from world cinema. I think it enhances them. I think it sort of adds to the reputation that, like, no, no, this is the big one. Like, this is the world cup of awards ceremonies. And I think that only makes the power of the Oscar even more strong.

[Host]

Hmm. Okay. Well, it doesn't sound like there's gonna be too much dramatic change in the Best picture category anytime soon. But if we were to rejigger Best International Film to function better, what could we do? What are the Options.

[Advertiser]

I think there are a couple things you can do. The main argument the Academy has for keeping the one country, one film rule is that they are kind of worried, understandably, that voters would get, like, very Eurocentric, that you just have two films from Italy, two films from France, and maybe, you know, one film from Taiwan. One solution that I thought of maybe was that, you know, we already have. There's an Academy committee. It is a self selected committee of people who have worked in international films, and they are the ones who narrow down, you know, the 80, 90 submissions every year into a 15 film shortlist. And so I say, you know, why not put those people in charge of also determining what the best film from each country would be?

[Host]

It sounds so common sense that, you know, you wonder why the Oscars don't just do that. Why don't they do that?

[Advertiser]

What I have been told is that they see it as empowering the other countries. It's like the Olympics or the World Cup. The people who run the World cup, FIFA, do not tell Germany what players to select for their team. I understand that logic. Even though, you know, I like my way, I think it's good. But I can understand why they think that.

[Host]

I wonder, is anyone out there making the case that we just don't even need this category anymore? Because as you're pointing out here, you've got this sort of international bleed into the best picture category. Do we still need to have a whole category for movies that, you know, aren't English language?

[Advertiser]

I do think that we need this category, if only because, you know, I just said that there are two films in this year's field nominated for best picture. Usually there's only one. Sometimes there's zero. And so I think having this category still lets a film like Seed of the Sacred Fig, which was not nominated for best picture, you know, this is a place to celebrate that film. And yes, I think, you know, in a perfect world, we'd have a totally equal playing field and people would, you know, slot in international films in their mental headspace alongside of Hollywood films very easily. But, you know, we don't live in a perfect world. And so I think it's good to kind of have this little place that lets Academy members sort of gives them a window into what's happening outside the U.S.

[Host]

Nate Jones, Best Supporting Writer at vulture.com Best Producer goes to. Abishai Artsy. Best deputy Jolie Myers. Best senior researcher, Laura Bullard. And best mixing is gonna be shared by Andrea Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd. Oh, and the Oscar for Best ensemble. Why doesn't that Oscar exist? Hadi Mwagdi, Devin Schwartz. Gabrielle Burbet. Victoria Chamberlain. Travis Larchuk. Miles Bryan. Amanda Llewellyn. Amina Al Saadi. Miranda Kennedy. And Best Host goes to. La La Land. No, sorry, sorry. It's Noel King. This is Noel King. The Best Host Today Explained is distributed by wnyc. The show is a part of vox, which, FYI, is an independent news source. That means we don't worry about serving the interests of the powerful. We just worry about serving you. And we rely on you to help fund our work. If you want to support us, you can go to vox.com members and sign up today. Thank you a million. And thank you to the Academy.