We had two films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Flee

Animated documentaries have become an ever present part of Oscar season as each new one tries to become the first to secure Oscar nominations for both Documentary Feature and Animated Feature. No title has done it yet. Flee comes into a competition with a lot of potential. The film tells the story of a gay man and the secret life he led while fleeing from Afghanistan as a refugee. It’s not an uncommon subject matter for documentary films, but for animation, it’s a rarer tale.

The film has won several festival awards in the run up to Oscar season and was cited by the National Board of Review as one of the year’s top documentaries while the New York Film Critics Circle did the one better selecting it as the best of the year. At the Satellite Awards, the film managed the trifecta of nominations: Animated Feature, Documentary Feature, and Foreign Language Film. While non-English language documentaries have shown up in the Foreign Language Film race, they have yet to find a place in Animated Feature. That could change this year, but I wouldn’t count on it. Numerous attempts have been made in the past and while these documentaries are celebrated, Oscar voters are a lot more picky and tend to focus on films that are geared toward children and adults equally, not adults entirely.

The Hand of God

Paulo Sorrentino’s latest Oscar contender is a slice of life drama featuring Filippo Scotti, Teresa Saponagelo, and Toni Servillo, the latter appearing in his sixth film with Sorrentino. Other frequent collaborators, including composer Lele Marchitelli, editor Cristiano Travaglioli, and casting director Anna Maria Sambucco, are also on board with this latest effort. This is his second film to be submitted by Italy as their contender for the Best International Feature award. his prior effort, The Great Beauty, won the Oscar.

The Great Beauty wasn’t his only Oscar contender. Youth, an English-language film starring Michael Caine & Harvey Keitel showed up in numerous places throughout the Oscar season, but ultimately only managed a single nomination for the song “Simple Song #3.” And before all of those, his Italian-language biopic of Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, Il Divo, picked up an Oscar nomination for Best MakeuP & Hairstyling. With that kind of record, it’s conceivable Sorrentino could be in play for Oscar consideration again. While I don’t see any category other than Best International Feature as a possibility, it might well be a strong one. That said, the only nomination its received so far was from the Satellite Awards. It has not managed to take home any other awards or nominations, which could be a detriment to its chances.