Foreign-film hubbub triggers 'grumbling' at academy panel
One of Gold Derby's trusty spies attended the annual Foreign Film Directors' Symposium at the academy theater on Saturday, curious over how the hubbub over this year's foreign film snubs (specifically of Romania's "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days") would be addressed by Mark Johnson, who heads up the academy's Foreign Film Committee..
"He did briefly acknowledge that the FFC had 'taken a bit of a beating in the press this year,'" our spy reports. "He reiterated (as he did in the press after the shortlist for this category was announced) that the system is imperfect and the controversy should not reflect poorly on the current nominees. He never specifically mentioned "4 Months' and ended his comments with some rah-rah boosterism for the FFC and their work in recognizing foreign-language films. He twice received a tepid smattering of applause. Ouch. After the second round of weak applause, there was a bit of grumbling in my section and Johnson quickly moved on to the business at hand. You almost felt bad for him; clearly there is still a lot of tension and resentment in the air."
