The best new films you haven't seen

You may never get to watch these documentaries, shorts and foreign films. But this primer could help you decide which to root for.

	[Photo: The Barbarian Invasions]
	The Barbarian Invasions
	[Pixar]
	Boundin’
	Two Soldiers [Photo: Shoe Clerk Picture Co. Inc.]
	[Photo: Sony Pictures Classics]
	The Fog of War
	[Photo: Magnolia Pictures]
	Capturing the Friedmans

Each year, Academy Awards organizers unwittingly schedule America's bathroom breaks, using several minutes at a time to honor films most folks never get a chance to see.

Moviegoers know them only as those wild guesses messing up our Academy Awards predictions.

This year, even the foreign language film category is a mystery since none of the nominees have arrived in Tampa Bay area theaters. Only one, The Barbarian Invasions, was screened for local critics in anticipation of a local engagement. (No date has been set.) Only one other nominee, Zelary, from the Czech Republic, has a U.S. distributor that may bring it here.

Feature-length documentaries also have difficulty reaching U.S. theaters, but the academy rewards them. One nominee, Capturing the Friedmans, briefly played locally. Another, My Architect, is currently at Tampa's Madstone Theater. Two others, The Fog of War and The Weather Underground, were screened for critics but haven't opened in local theaters.

Short subjects (films less than 60 minutes in length) have even more distribution difficulties. Yet Oscars are bestowed on these obscurities, in animated, live-action and documentary formats.

Don't worry. We're here to help you sort through these categories, maybe even make it so interesting, you'll eliminate a bathroom break or two.

Here are the nominees in the academy's five most unseen categories, along with some background, previous awards and, when possible, a hint of what film critics had to say.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Balseros (Cuban Rafters)

Directors: Carlos Bosch, Jose Maria Domenech (first Oscar nominations for each).

The story: Tracing the lives of seven Cuban refugees, from dismantling their homes for raft wood in 1994 through dangerous waters and Guantanamo internment, then five years later when some lives are broken and others are mended.

Behind the story: Originally produced for Spanish television.

What critics said: "Among other things, the movie offers a fascinating perspective on the U.S., a paradise at once cold and abundant where, for all the emphasis on family values, the individual reigns supreme." (J. Hoberman, Village Voice)

Capturing the Friedmans

Director: Andrew Jarecki (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A family in Long Island is shattered when the father and a son are charged with child molestation. Another son videotaped the Friedmans' most private moments, which Jarecki uses extensively.

Behind the story: Suppressed evidence uncovered by the filmmakers has led the son, Jesse, to seek to overturn his conviction after spending 13 years in prison.

What critics said: "The film is an instructive lesson about the elusiveness of facts, especially in a legal context. Sometimes guilt and innocence are discovered in court, but sometimes, we gather, only truths about the law are demonstrated." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

The Fog of War

Director: Errol Morris (first Oscar nomination).

The story: Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara candidly discusses his role in the Vietnam War, often confirming that mistakes were made in strategy and execution.

Behind the story: Morris' invention, the Interrotron, uses two-way mirrors and allows McNamara to maintain eye contact with the audience without a distracting camera lens pointed at his face.

What critics said: "It is a profound examination of the troubling proposition that good or well-meaning people can help create horrible and evil events - and be swept along in the turmoil they unleash. As the film shows us, few lessons are more historically important, few more tragically ignored." (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune)

My Architect: A Son's Journey

Director: Nathaniel Kahn (first Oscar nomination).

The story: The illegitimate son of famed architect Louis Kahn traces his father's career and separate lives with three sets of women and children.

Behind the story: Louis Kahn died in 1974 and 11-year-old Nathaniel, his mother and half-sister were omitted from the man's obituary.

What critics said: "Nathaniel is so sensitive to every aspect of his story that his film transcends domestic drama and the conventional outlines of a portrait of an artist. My Architect is a passionate, lucid piece of nonfiction filmmaking: the rare commentary on an artist's life and oeuvre that itself becomes a sublime and soulful work of art." (Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun)

The Weather Underground

Directors: Sam Green, Bill Siegel (first Oscar nominations for each).

The story: Radical Vietnam War protesters whose politics and terrorist plans were shaped by a turbulent society, drug abuse and group sex are examined.

Behind the story: Many charges against the Weather Underground were dropped because evidence was uncovered by the FBI's secret, illegal Cointelpro agency discrediting leftist antiwar protesters.

What critics said: "Powerful and surprisingly timely, the film explores the interweaving of idealism and terrorism and the frustration of true believers who found that neither approach resulted in much change." (Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Asylum

Director: Sandy McLeod (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A woman seeks U.S. asylum from Ghana's practice of genital mutilation but is caught with a bogus passport. She's interviewed about that abuse while in custody awaiting a ruling on her case.

Behind the story: McLeod began her career 25 years ago producing music videos for Bruce Springsteen, UB40 and Roy Orbison.

Previous awards: Asylum earned an honorable mention at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Chernobyl Heart

Director: Maryann DeLeo (first Oscar nomination).

The story: Examines the continuing effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident including birth defects, cancer and heart disease.

Behind the story: DeLeo accompanied representatives of the International Children's Heart Foundation to Belarus in 2002 to produce her film.

Ferry Tales

Director: Katja Esson (first Oscar nomination).

The story: Women meet each day in the Staten Island Ferry's restroom to fix their makeup for work, sharing their dreams and frustrations.

Behind the story: The world premiere of Ferry Tales was at the 2003 Florida Film Festival.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Barbarian Invasions

Country of origin: Canada, the nation's third Oscar nominee after Jesus of Montreal (1989) and The Decline of the American Empire (1986).

Director: Denys Arcand

The story: A dying history professor reunites with friends, lovers and an estranged son.

Behind the story: Arcand uses many of the same characters and actors from The Decline of the American Empire, updating them from bon vivant radicals to something older and wiser but still witty.

Previous awards: Golden Globe award for best foreign film, Cannes Film Festival prizes for Arcand's screenplay and actor Marie-Josee Croze. Arcand's original screenplay is also nominated for an Oscar.

What critics said: "Arcand does not entirely ignore the sadness inherent to his premise. But most of this spiritedly talky movie is devoted to something other than making you cry. Arcand loves conversation as much as he loves ideas, and his movie is overstuffed with both." (Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald)

Evil (Ondskan)

Country of origin: Sweden, the nation's 13th Oscar nominee, with three winners: Fanny & Alexander (1983), Through a Glass Darkly (1961) and The Virgin Spring (1960).

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

The story: A violent teenager expelled from public school enrolls in a private academy where abusive upperclassmen bring out the worst in him.

Behind the story: The film is based on a bestselling, semiautobiographical novel by Jan Guillou, one of Sweden's most popular authors.

Previous awards: Sweden's version of the Oscars, the Guldbagge awards, voted Evil three prizes including best film.

What critics said: "It's all very well acted, fairly wrenching and totally predictable, mixing its antiviolence messages with carefully staged catharses involving bloody and wholly righteous vengeance." (Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly)

The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare seibei)

Country of origin: Japan, the nation's 11th Oscar nominee with no wins, although three films - Samurai, The Legend of Musashi (1955), Gate of Hell (1954) and Rashomon (1951) - received honorary Academy Awards before this category was established.

Director: Yoji Yamada

The story: An aging, widowed warrior in the 19th century is urged into action again when a woman is brutalized by her husband.

Behind the story: This is Yamada's 77th film in a 41-year career as a director.

Previous awards: Winner of 12 awards, including best film, from the Japanese version of the Academy Awards.

What critics said: "Yamada finds in the last days of the Edo Period (1600-1867) a Japan uncannily like the one we're living in today, complete with premodern versions of yen-pinching recessionary lifestyles, corporate restructuring, office politics - and men who can't say what they feel." (Mark Schilling, Japan Times)

Twin Sisters (De Tweeling)

Country of origin: The Netherlands, the nation's seventh Oscar nominee with three winners: Character (1997), Antonia's Line (1995) and The Assault (1986).

Director: Ben Sombogaart

The story: Twin sisters are separated in 1920s Germany, one raised by a wealthy family and the other by a poor farmer, a situation made more tragic when Nazis come to power.

Behind the story: Based on a bestselling novel by Tesse de Loo.

Previous awards: Best film at the 2003 Netherlands Film Festival.

What critics said: "This very heavy subject is treated with a good deal of delicacy in this sensitive and emotive film. One of the major things it has going for it is that it shows the war that went on in the daily lives of common people, not people on the battlefield or in concentration camps. (Boyd van Hoel, Bibloi.com)

Zelary

Country of origin: Czech Republic, the nation's third Oscar nomination with one winner: Kolya (1996). Before 1993, the former Czechoslovakia earned six nominations and two wins: Closely Watched Trains (1967) and The Shop on Main Street (1965).

Director: Ondrej Trojan

The story: A medical student and Resistance member during World War II hides in the mountains with a rugged man.

Behind the story: Trojan grew up around the film industry with his actor father Ladislav and a brother Ivan, who was cast in this film.

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Boundin'

Director: Bud Luckey (his first Oscar nomination).

The story: A lamb is depressed about being sheared until a mythical jackalope raises his spirits.

Behind the story: Boundin' was produced by Pixar Animation Studios, creators of Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. A portion of the film is available on Pixar's Web site (www.pixar.com)

Destino

Director: Dominique Monfery (first Oscar nomination).

The story: Salvador Dali's surreal view of love and free expression.

Behind the story: Dali and Walt Disney were close friends and planned this collaboration in 1946. Only 15 seconds of footage was produced before the project was halted. Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew, was the studio's vice chairman when he started production again in 1999.

Previous awards: Special citations from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Chicago Film Festival.

Gone Nutty

Director: Carlos Saldanha (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A prehistoric squirrel named Scrat stashes nuts, creating a world-changing cataclysm.

Behind the story: This is a sequel of sorts to Ice Age (2002), a hit for Fox Animation Studios.

Harvie Krumpet

Director: Adam Elliot (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A lifelong loser has some occasionally joyful experiences.

Behind the story: That's Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush (Shine) providing Harvey's voice.

Previous awards: Honorable mention at this year's Sundance Film Festival, best short film awards from the Australian Film Institute and Melbourne International Film Festival.

Nibbles

Director: Chris Hinton (second Oscar nomination).

The story: A father and his sons take a humorous fishing trip into the Canadian wilderness.

Behind the story: Hinton was nominated in 1991 for the short film Blackfly.

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)

Director: Florian Baxmeyer (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A father tosses his son's jacket into the trash, yet it winds up warming a boy in war-torn Sarajevo.

Behind the story: Baxmeyer, 29, still attends film classes at the University of Hamburg.

Previous awards: Winner of an honorary Student Academy Award last year.

Most (The Bridge)

Director: Bobby Garabedian (first Oscar nomination).

The story: A father takes his son to a drawbridge where he works, where they meet an emotionally disturbed young woman.

Behind the story: Most is a product of Poland and the Czech Republic and shown with English subtitles. Garabedian, however, is an American living in Los Angeles, acting in television series such as NYPD Blue and Picket Fences.

Previous awards: Named the best of the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films.

Squash

Director: Lionel Bailliu (first Oscar nomination).

The story: With his job on the line, an employee is losing a game of squash - and his dignity - to his boss.

Behind the story: A French production shown with English subtitles.

Previous awards: Won prizes at short-film festivals in Toronto, Palm Springs, Aspen and Cork, Ireland.

(A) Torzija

Director: Stefan Arsenijevic.

The story: A choir escaping Sarajevo through a secret underground tunnel meets a farmer begging them to help his injured cow.

Behind the story: Arsenijevic is studying film at Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts.

Previous awards: Named best short film at the European Film Awards and the Berlin International Film Festival.

Two Soldiers

Director: Aaron Schneider.

The story: The Civil War places two brothers on opposing sides in North Carolina.

Behind the story: Based on a short story by William Faulkner, this is the only English language film among the nominees in this category.

Previous award: Best live action film over 15 minutes at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films.

- Information from the official Academy Awards Web site (www.oscars.org) the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and various Web sites and publications was used in this report.

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