[Aaron Schmitt]

I started thinking about this last night after the AFI awards. I don't think MR is an American film, given that it was written, directed, and produced by an Australian; shot in Australia; starring an Australian, an Englishman, and others from England and Australia; and filmed at a studio owned by an Australian (Fox is still owned by Rupert Murdoch, I believe). Wouldn't this make MR a foreign movie? Would it be eligible for a Best Foreign Film Oscar? Or because it's an english language movie, does it not qualify as a foreign film (it seems that you don't see British, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand films nominated for Best Foreign Film)? I am curious to find out what others think.

Aaron

[Greg_Y]

Here are the rules governing eligibility for an Academy Award. Goes over some of the finer points.

http://www.oscars.org/74academyawards/rules.html

[Aaron Schmitt]

Thanks for the link, Greg, that helped explain the academy's views.

Aaron

[Scott Weinberg]

I'd say that it's an American Film in that an American company paid for it. Lots of American movies are filmed entirely overseas.

[Seth Paxton]

Otherwise it would also mean that Fellowship might be a non-American film as well.

[Julian Lalor]

Moulin Rouge is both an Australian and American film. Creatively, it is almost exclusively Australian; financially it is American. Of course, this is all irrelevant with respect to the Oscars: it is eligible for the same categories as all other English language films, and is not eligible for the foreign language film, in the same way British films aren't. The film was nominated for Australian Film Institute Awards as an Australian film, although the Australian tax department considers it an American film for finance reasons.

As for Lord of the Rings, I would also venture to say that is a US-NZ film, again for its almost exclusivey NZ creative team (writers, producer, director) but financed by New Line in the US).

At the end of the day: what does it matter? I think it's great that American studios aren't limiting themselves to Hollywood and are realising that artists often work better in their own environments.

[Rob Willey]

I began to wonder if maybe the AFI didn't consider Moulin Rouge an American film when they read the nominees for Production Design and Catherine Martin wasn't included (what an oversight!).

Then right afterward, Jill Bilcock was named and won for Editing (well deserved!) and that cleared up that confusion.

Rob

[Adam Lenhardt]

[size=]I just rented this tonight from Hollywood Video (the second disc was rattling around loose in the case, so all the content was pixelated to hell) The menus for the second disc were also atrocious... style over accessibility. That said, the transfer on the movie itself was gorgeous, and the movie was astounding. It's amazing that a movie that was shot like a music video, could grab me like this. Being a fan of neither musicals nor chick flicks, it's surprising that I liked this. That a movie about a prostitute and a playright could tell such an epic and fantastic story of love is amazing. And that the scope aspect ratio could be used to it's absolute limits like this is amazing. Having only seen Ewan in Episode I, I found the passion and power of his performance surprisingly great. The singing wasn't bad either[/size]

[Scott Weinberg]

Hi Adam. I'm one of the staunchest supporters of Moulin Rouge that you could dig up here at the HTF.

I fully anticipate this fantastic movie earning a Best Picture nomination, and I am rooting for it to bring home the gold!

And you're right: the DVD (as a whole) is just glorious!

[Inspector Hammer!]

That's funny Scott, I thought I was the biggest supporter of this wonderful film! I wanted to see this in the the