Documentaries and foreign films, for the most part, are thrown into a cinematic void in North America. If not on PBS, or featuring Al Gore or Michael Moore, the docs usually don't get seen. The same goes for films that have, gasp!, subtitles. Both are pretty unfortunate, considering the amazing selections that each offers. Yet even with breakthroughs like An Inconvenient Truth, Amelie, or The Passion of the Christ, documentaries and foreign films hit a very low ceiling when it comes to mainstream viewing.

And this is really ticking off Michael Moore. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the documentary filmmaker is "mad as hell" about the fact that both types of films are shut out of theaters, and he is itching to change it. Moore says: "My new year's resolution is to sit down with the heads of exhibition chains and have them devote one screen in their multiplexes to nonfiction and foreign films." (Another option they're looking into: one night a week, like the usually-weak Monday nights.) He continues: "People want to see documentaries, but there's a disconnect between that desire and the exhibitors out there. We're not asking for charity. This could be on the 15th screen of a multiplex that would otherwise have the sixth showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Some of these films make $200 or $300 per screen."

I would love to see this happen. However, I worry about what happens after the initial rush. It's so very easy to say, if the starting box office take is week, that it wouldn't work. Hopefully, they'll realize that it takes some time to foster. Many people might shun the possibility, but then there are those who will take a chance, fall in love with what they see, and not only bring their friends, but have their eyes opened to two huge, and wonderful areas of cinema. Then again, I'm wishing big, in hopes that original films can start thriving instead of the continual barrage of remakes.

According to a poll conducted by Pearl and Dean of UK movie audiences, Pan's Labyrinth, from Spain and Mexico, has officially become the nation's favorite foreign film. It and the #2 choice, Amelie (France) are currently the two all-time imported box office champs in the country's history. The rest of the list leaned drastically toward current films, award-winners and money-makers: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China) and Spirited Away (Japan) (tied for third), City of God (Brazil), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), The Lives of Others (Germany), Life Is Beautiful (Italy), The Motorcycle Diaries (Mexico/Argentina) and Cache (a.k.a. Hidden) (France/Austria). (No Seven Samurai?)

Kathryn Jacob of Pearl and Dean saw good news in the poll: "Foreign films are now seven times more likely to be British box-office hits than they were a decade ago. British film audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are no longer letting subtitles be a barrier to their enjoyment of a great film. Pan's Labyrinth is a beautiful example of a film that would have struggled to get screened in a multiplex 10 years ago, but which has truly captured the imagination of British cinema audiences today."

As I reported over the weekend, Israel's submission for next year's foreign-language category at the Oscars is The Band's Visit, a well-received comedy about an Egyptian police band that gets lost in Israel. It swept the Ophirs (Israel's Oscar equivalent), winning eight awards including best picture and best director. It won awards at Sarajevo and Cannes. And Sony Pictures Classics reportedly paid more for it than anyone has ever paid for an Israeli film.

So what's the problem, Oscar-wise? It might have too much English in it.

L.A. Weekly's Nikki Finke reported on Sunday that the film's "rivals" -- people involved with movies that weren't selected, one assumes -- are claiming that more than 50 percent of The Band's Visit's dialogue is in English. The Academy rules for this category (which you can read in their entirety here) simply say that to be eligible, a film must be "predominantly" in a language other than English. The rules don't give specifics about percentages.

Cinematical's James Rocchi saw the film at Toronto (and liked it). His recollection is that it was mostly in Hebrew and Arabic without too much English. He told me: "The use of English to me seemed like either a) people talking about song lyrics or other concerns in the language they were written in or b) a natural sort of meeting place -- 'I speak Arabic; you speak Hebrew; we both speak bad English....'"

The Academy won't get into it until after the Oct. 1 submission deadline. If they decide the film is not "predominantly" in a foreign tongue, they'll disqualify it -- and it won't be the first time. Just two years ago, Singapore's entry, Be with Me, was bounced for this very reason. We'll keep you posted on the fate of Israel's film.

The nations of the world have until Oct. 1 to submit their entries for the Best Foreign Language Film category in next year's Oscars, and Variety reports that the Philippines has chosen its candidate: Donsol, a drama about two lonely people who meet in a seaside town of that name during the whale-watching season.

The film has picked up a few awards at various festivals, including Cinemalaya and the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival. It's the first film by director Adolfo Alix, Jr., though he co-wrote a film, Small Voices, that was the Philippines' Oscar submission for 2002.

The Philippines has submitted an Oscar entry just about every year for the past decade or so (rarely before that), but has never received a nomination. We'll know on January 22 whether this is finally their year.

As we've reported on various countries' candidates for the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Oscars, we've observed that many of them are longshots at best. Countries like the Philippines and Singapore have never even secured a nomination in the category, let alone a win. That's not to say it won't happen this year; just that it's not as likely.

But now two countries with solid Oscar track records have announced their entries: Israel is putting up The Band's Visit, while the Czech Republic offers I Served the King of England. Israel has submitted a film every year since 1977 and fairly regularly before that, earning six nominations but no wins so far. The Czech Republic had six nominations including two wins back when it was Czechoslovakia; since the split in 1993, Czech Republic has had three nominations, with a win in 1996.

Israel's The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) automatically became its Oscar entry when it took the top prize at the Israeli Film Academy Awards on Thursday. The comedy, about an Egyptian police band that gets lost in Israel, won the audience award at the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Jury Coup Du Coeur in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. It also played at Toronto, where Cinematical's lovely and talented James Rocchi reviewed it favorably. Sony Pictures Classics is set to release it in the U.S.; Variety says the amount they paid was a record for an Israeli film.

I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) is based on an epic novel and spans years before and after World War II. It was directed by Jiri Menzel, whose film Closely Watched Trains won the Oscar back in 1968.

The exotic far-Eastern nation of Singapore has never been a significant player in the international film community. In fact, according to IMDB, only 278 films or TV shows have EVER been made there, all together, since the dawn of cinema. Hollywood churns out more than that in a month, and that's only counting romantic comedies.

But Variety reports that Singapore has submitted a film for consideration for next year's Best Foreign-Language Oscar category: 881, a musical comedy set in the world of "getai." Our friend Wikipedia tells us that getai is a boisterous live stage performance full of gaudy costumes and kitschy, crude jokes. (I'm sure I have oversimplified, but if we have any Singaporean readers, perhaps they can tell us more about it in the comments.) The film, directed by Royston Tan, has been a huge hit locally since opening Aug. 9.

This is only the second time that Singapore has ever submitted a film for the Oscars. The last time was two years ago, when Be with Me was entered ... and then disqualified for being mostly in English. Doh!

Over at the blog Edward Copeland on Film, Mr. Copeland has compiled the results of a project he started a few months ago, with film writers -- bloggers, critics, professors, and so on -- voting on the 100 best movies ever made in a language other than English. He had a nominating committee of 51 people (including Cinematical's Kim Voynar) determine the list of nominees, and then the voting was open. There were a few stipulations: Documentaries, shorts, silent films, and movies newer than 2002 weren't eligible.

A total of 174 ballots were entered. The top 10 is as follows. (See the entire top 100 here.)

1. The Rules of the Game, Jean Renoir, French
2. The Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa, Japanese
3. M, Fritz Lang, German
4. 8 1/2, Federico Fellini, Italian
5. Bicycle Thieves (more commonly -- and erroneously -- known as The Bicycle Thief), Vittorio de Sica, Italian
6. Persona, Ingmar Bergman, Swedish
7. Grand Illusion, Jean Renoir, French
8. Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Werner Herzog, German
9. The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, French & Arabic
10. The 400 Blows, Francois Truffaut, French

No huge surprises there, except maybe that I'd have thought Bergman's Seventh Seal (#15) would be higher than his Persona. In the top 100 list, the names are the ones you'd expect: Kurosawa (7 times), Bergman (7), Fellini (5), Truffaut (4), Godard (5), etc. Renoir makes it just twice -- but they're both in the top 10!

As far as languages go, French is by far the most heavily represented, with 35 films (by my count) on the list. Italian is next (15), followed by Japanese (13). Russian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, and Swedish are all represented a few times each, the latter two thanks entirely to Krzysztof Kieslowski and Ingmar Bergman, respectively. Danish shows up twice in the works of Carl Dreyer. Hungarian and Portuguese appear just once each, in Satantango (#97) and City of God (#26).

Any languages you're surprised not to see represented? (What, no Korean? No Middle Eastern languages except for the Arabic parts of The Battle of Algiers?) Which specific films do you think got left off? (I'm a sucker for Life Is Beautiful.) Discuss, discuss!