“Beaufort” advances in Oscar race

“Beaufort,” the Israeli indie film about the last military outpost to leave Lebanon is one step closer to an Oscar nomination. Ah, the sweet smell of success after an altercation with The Band’s Visit over who would represent Israel as its official submission may have soured some relations.

The official academy release:

Beverly Hills, CA: Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in

the Foreign Language Film category for the 80th Academy Awards®. Sixty-three

films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director

Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao

  Hamburger, director

Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director

Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director

Italy, The Unknown, Giuseppe Tornatore, director

Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director

Poland, Katyn, Andrzej Wajda, director

Russia, 12, Nikita Mikhalkov, director

Serbia, The Trap, Srdan Golubovic, director

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2007 are being determined in two

phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based

members, screened the 63 eligible films and their ballots determined the

above shortlist.

A Phase II committee, made up of ten randomly selected members from the

Phase I group, joined by specially invited ten-member contingents in New

York and Los Angeles, will view the shortlisted films and select the five

nominees for the category.