The 2025 Golden Globes nominations will be announced shortly, and there are quite a number of international films in contention for other major categories outside of Best Non-English Language Film. This will be the second year of the new voting body, which has expanded by adding 215 international voters, something that was evident in the plethora of foreign-language films represented last year outside of the designated category: “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest,” “Fallen Leaves,” and “Past Lives.”
It is predicted that France’s “Emilia Pérez” will be recognized across the board, but let’s take a look at three international films underneath the surface that can potentially get other Golden Globe bids, in particular “I’m Still Here” from Brazil, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from Germany and “All We Imagine as Light” from France, India, and the Netherlands.
Starting with “All We Imagine As Light,” which has had a great week, nabbing international prizes at the Gotham Awards and the New York Film Critics’ Circle, while making the National Board of Review’s Top 5 International Films and winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Though it was not entered by any of its countries, thus making it ineligible for the Oscars for Best International Feature, it could follow the path of “Anatomy of a Fall” last year, when it was also not selected by France, yet racked up support for its picture, screenplay, and female lead performance. The same can be said for writer and director Payal Kapadia and the two lead actresses Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha in a story about women finding solidarity and strength in each other, which is where the Globes can also acknowledge this film.
Next is “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which arguably has the strongest narrative in writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, who was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Iranian authorities and subsequently fled to Germany before attending Cannes where the film received a Special Jury Prize. Centering around a judge who becomes endangered with his new position and having parallels to the current violent political protests in Iran, the thriller has been picking up audience prizes at various film festivals and won the National Board of Review’s Best International Film. With Rasoulof’s journey during the making of this political thriller, he could potentially appear in Best Director at the Globes as well as Best Drama Film, similar to “The Zone of Interest,” which was a surprise last year in the latter category that got the ball rolling for its future awards trajectory.
Finally, there is Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” best known for his 1998 Golden Globe-winning film “Central Station,” which won Best Foreign Language Film and garnered a Best Actress Globe nomination for Fernanda Montenegro that led her to an Oscar bid. This political biopic stars Montenegro’s daughter Fernanda Torres as human rights activist Eunice Paiva, who searches for her missing husband, congressman Rubens Paiva, during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in 1971. Another film dealing with political repression, it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival where it won Best Screenplay and, similar to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” has picked up audience festival awards and was cited in the NBR Top 5 list for international films. Aside from that, Torres’ performance has been universally acclaimed and she currently ranks fifth in the combined predictions at Gold Derby with 11/1 odds for Best Film Drama Actress. This could work out the same way it did for “Fallen Leaves,” which got a Best Comedy/Musical Actress nod for Alma Pöysti out of nowhere. Salles is also no stranger to the Globes as he contended before in Best Foreign Language Film with “Central Station” (1998), “Behind The Sun” (2001), and “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004), but he could get in Best Film Director for the first time and “I’m Still Here” may show up in Best Film Drama.
The Golden Globe Awards are the first major televised precursor that set the tone for what the rest of the awards season will look like. With the benefit of all categories having six slots as well as the reformed membership, it is possible that these international contenders could get a major boost that propel forward as the season goes on. Time will tell when the nominations are revealed on Monday, Dec. 9.
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