With a French movie, The Artist, winning so many awards at the Oscars this past weekend, it got me thinking about how our film industry does overseas. I looked it up and found some interesting information.
A lot of times, foreign awards shows don't allow American movies to be nominated for Best Picture, but have a separate Best Foreign Film category, like ours, which Iran's A Separation won this year. American movies are a big hit in Asia, with The King’s Speech, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Moneyball, The Social Network, and Black Swan nominated at the Japanese Academy Awards, while the only American movies nominated at the French Césars were Drive and Black Swan. However, Gran Torino has won Best Picture at the French Césars.
Only eight completely foreign-language films have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, but foreign-directed and produced films are more regularly nominated, and three of the last four have gone to foreign-produced films.
It is interesting that other countries, particularly European countries, have strict rules regarding American films, while our Academy is more open to foreign movies.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Softball in Europe
In January, I went to Europe to play for the North American Select softball team in Cup 2012. The tournament was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
It was a lot different playing in Europe, but mainly all of the differences were because we played inside instead of outside. The floor was really slippery, so you had to slide early or else you would miss the base and get tagged out. There was a rule that if the ball touched the ceiling, it was a foul ball unless it was caught, then it was an out. It was a 3-2 count instead of a regular 4-3 count. Also, if the ball was hit on one side of a cone, it was a double, and there were no triples or home runs.
Even though there were a lot of differences, most of the game was played the same as it is here. About half of the umpires were from the United States, and they called the game the same way they would at home.
It was a lot of fun getting to play softball in another country. The most interesting part was playing against girls who didn't even speak the same language as you, but played the game by the same rules.
It was a lot different playing in Europe, but mainly all of the differences were because we played inside instead of outside. The floor was really slippery, so you had to slide early or else you would miss the base and get tagged out. There was a rule that if the ball touched the ceiling, it was a foul ball unless it was caught, then it was an out. It was a 3-2 count instead of a regular 4-3 count. Also, if the ball was hit on one side of a cone, it was a double, and there were no triples or home runs.
Even though there were a lot of differences, most of the game was played the same as it is here. About half of the umpires were from the United States, and they called the game the same way they would at home.
It was a lot of fun getting to play softball in another country. The most interesting part was playing against girls who didn't even speak the same language as you, but played the game by the same rules.
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