Waltz with Bashir gets Oscar nod

[bemildred]

The Israeli animated film Waltz with Bashir has snagged a nomination for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences announced Thursday.

Bashir marks the second year in a row that an Israeli film has received a nomination for an Academy Award, after last year's Beaufort, which was set against the backdrop of the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

This year's nominee comes full circle, recalling its director's experiences during the First Lebanon War in 1982. Ari Folman's innovative documentary recently won a Golden Globe Award and was voted the best picture of 2008 by the National Society of Film Critics. The Golden Globe is widely considered a precursor to the Academy Awards and movies winning Golden Globes often later garner Oscar statuettes as well.

Waltz with Bashir is unorthodox as a documentary for its use of animation throughout the movie, only employing documentary footage in its last moments. The film deals with Folman's own experience of Operation Peace for Galilee in 1982, later known as the opening stage of the First Lebanon War.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232292939912&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull