Key winners at Cannes, Berlin festivals compete for foreign-language honors at Oscars

Key winners at Cannes, Berlin compete for Oscars

LOS ANGELES — Top prize-winners from the Cannes and Berlin film festivals are among 65 movies competing for the foreign-language honor at the Academy Awards next March.

Oscar contenders include Germany’s “The White Ribbon,” director Michael Haneke’s sober drama that won the main prize at May’s Cannes festival. Set on the eve of World War I, the film explores the collective guilt of a small town besieged by strange acts of violence.

Also in the Oscar race is France’s “A Prophet,” Jacques Audiard’s prison drama that was the runner-up at Cannes.

The top winner at February’s Berlin festival, Claudia Llosa’s “The Milk of Sorrow,” is Peru’s entry for the foreign-language Oscar. The film explores the fear of women abused during the Peruvian government’s war with leftist guerrillas.

Italy’s entry, the coming-of-age tale “Baaria,” is the latest from Giuseppe Tornatore, whose “Cinema Paradiso” won the 1989 foreign-language Oscar.

Notably absent is Oscar winner Pedro Almodovar, whose “All About My Mother” took the 1999 foreign-language trophy. Spain chose Fernando Trueba’s “The Dancer and the Thief” as its Oscar entry over Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces,” which co-stars last year’s supporting-actress winner Penelope Cruz.

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards come out Feb. 2. The Oscars will be awarded March 7.

On the Net:

www.oscars.org