Welcome to Globowood: Cinema Ushers in a New Wave of Possibility

Last week's Academy Awards ushered in a new wave of cinematic promise. The Oscars were complete with fabulous dresses, glamorous parties, and big winners as always, but this year there was a new feeling among the nominees and a strong presence of the international film world. More than ever, international stories and films like Babel, Pan’s Labyrinth, Volver, and Letters from Iwo Jima dominated the ceremony. Box office analyst Jeff Bock remarked, “We’ve never seen so many of these movies at one time….It’s a culmination of people slowly realizing that there really is a global landscape of films.” The film industry has always been a global place, with classic French cinema, Bollywood, and the increasing popularity of Asian cinema; but the difference today is that these are no longer characterized as only great foreign films, but simply great films. These complex movies from other parts of the world are becoming the stories America now cares about. When did this shift happen, what countries are emerging in the film world, and what lies ahead for the future are very interesting questions to consider and reveal a clear transition cinema is undergoing. British Oscar nominee Paul Greengrass, director of United 93 explains that “Whenever the world looks complex and threatening and ambiguous and dangerous, it seems to me that cinema really can flourish…and I think it would be natural at those times that you have a plurality of voices, and it’s one of those things that makes Hollywood [its signature sign shown above] continually vibrant.”

As people continue to realize how much opportunity is available in film right now, communities around the world are getting cinema savvy, particularly South Africa and Ireland which are having tremendous growth in cinema right now. Both offering attractive prices and facilities to shoot pictures, as well as breeding up and comers. In the Variety article “Bringing sexy back to film education” John O’Mahony writes that the Irish government plans to spend $188 million on the film industry in the next seven years and also offer tax breaks to encourage productions. Since the nineties, film education in Ireland has increased in popularity and with demand for filmmakers so high there, the schools have to persuade students not to drop out to work. Also expanding its film outlook is South Africa, and while not focusing on film education is making its own efforts to increase film popularity and attract big Hollywood productions.

Twelve years after the end of apartheid, South Africa is still a country that needs vast change, and film is helping the progression. Africa is looking to expand film possibilities in every direction and after winning the foreign language Oscar last year for Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi, the sentiment is very positive. In an NBC article “South Africa: Catching a fire” Stephen Galloway explains, “Thanks to versatile locales and strong infrastructure, the country has a booming locations business, consistently drawing foreign productions.…It also has a new state-of-the-art shooting facility under construction just outside Capetown.” One of the major reasons that South Africa has been able to establish itself as a shooting location is because the South African government has made it a priority to be very accommodating, “realizing that the film industry not only has the potential to create jobs and bring in much-needed foreign revenue but can lure tourists to a country long recognized as one of the most beautiful in the world.” This year’s high-profile film Blood Diamond (scenes from the film shown above) starring Leonardo DiCaprio demonstrates that the plan is working. South Africa boasts good production value and has also set up a rebate plan where producers can receive fifteen percent of their South African spend back, but this is only for very large productions with big name stars attached. More importantly, the country is encouraging indigenous productions by offering backing: “Local filmmakers are being given the opportunity to sink their teeth into a range of projects, which only stands to increase the country’s experienced talent pool.”

Foreign producers no longer have to make only foreign films, just as American producers can make a foreign film such as Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima. Guillermo del Toro (pictured left), who directed the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and whose Spanish film Pan’s Labyrinth enjoyed great success at the Oscars, verbalizes this sentiment explaining, “We are not pigeonholed to do mariachi or bullfighting movies. A director can come in and direct ‘Harry Potter’ or an action thriller or whatever we want.” A-List actors have helped in bringing about this change by wanting to work with directors from all over the world, and where the big names go, the financing follows. Film has certainly become the focus of many countries looking to make a greater imprint on the world. South Africa acknowledges that film is a valuable resource and opportunity to expand its economy, while expressing the country’s voice. Ireland recognizes the vast opportunities available in film and wants to offer education equivalent to America. However, in America, a country where Hollywood has dominated for seventy years, why just now are people looking to other countries for stories and voices, when Hollywood still makes hundreds of worthy films a year?

The answer to this question is rooted deep within the worlds’ turmoil and grief, the wars and third world conditions, and the hope for a better future. Film is such a powerful form of expression that shares stories in a fashion people can relate to. Every day people are bombarded with news and images of world issues, but when a problem seems so far away, it is hard to understand what is going on, but “films put a human face on the people in the news who are usually, and literally, caught in the crossfire” notes Chale Nafus, director of programming at the Austin Film Society. Blood Diamond is an excellent example of this, because while everyone has heard about De Beers' conflict diamonds and the awful conditions of the diamond industry, until one sees the whole world come alive on screen and really feels the danger and horror, only then does it becomes a reality. It is not the case that Hollywood is no longer making any films worth merit, it is just that audiences are craving something different. Nafus says, “The stories that Hollywood has been dealing with are no longer of interest to many people” and the success of films like Pan’s Labyrinth (poster of film shown to the upper right) “points to the desire for rich, uncharted stories that Hollywood isn’t producing.” Bock adds that “these are such imaginative films, and you can’t hold them back anymore just because they’re not in English.” Foreign films are amazing to watch because they have a new voice, perspective, landscape, and show worlds and stories that few may have known about before.

It is truly an exhilarating time to be involved with cinema and as a young person looking to get into the film business, I could not be more thrilled with the prospects. The Oscar nominated film Babel (poster on left showing the many different faces and places the movie concerns) looks at the many languages that separate the people of the world, but also at how emotions and stories connect everyone, much like cinema. Cinema is a universal language, and a great film can be understood no matter what language the actors are speaking. “In the past, if anything was outside the shores of North America, [the industry] looked at it as a risk,” says foreign nominee Deepa Mehta, but today this is just the type of film that is sought after because of the fantastic potential. With foreign films growing in popularity Hollywood is truly becoming Globowood; some even postulating that “maybe the Oscars’ foreign film category will someday just disappear.” This is a very definite possibility and as one film world unites maybe there is hope for a tomorrow of one unified world. For now, the future is wide open.