‘Signal Rock’ ends Oscars journey, fails to make foreign language film shortlist

Filipino film "Signal Rock" failed to make it to the shortlist of the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 91st Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

Chito Roño's film starring Christian Bables was among the 87 films originally considered for this category.

The nine films advancing to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category are:

• Colombia, “Birds of Passage”
• Denmark, “The Guilty”
• Germany, “Never Look Away”
• Japan, “Shoplifters”
• Kazakhstan, “Ayka”
• Lebanon, “Capernaum”
• Mexico, “Roma”
• Poland, “Cold War”
• South Korea, “Burning”

The entries were all screened between mid-October and December 10.

The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

Signal Rock

Set in 1990, Signal Rock and follows the story of Intoy, played by Bables, a resident of Biri, Samar, where people must climb a high rock in order to get a phone signal.

"Birdshot" (2017), "Ma'Rosa" (2016), "Heneral Luna" (2015), "Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan" (2014). and "Transit" (2013) were previously selected to be sent for Oscars consideration.

A Philippine entry has yet to make the final cut of nominees in the Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards.

Other categories

Aside from the Best Foreign Language Film category, the Academy also revealed the shortlists in eight other categories, namely:

Documentary Feature

• “Charm City”
• “Communion”
• “Crime + Punishment”
• “Dark Money”
• “The Distant Barking of Dogs”
• “Free Solo”
• “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
• “Minding the Gap”
• “Of Fathers and Sons”
• “On Her Shoulders”
• “RBG”
• “Shirkers”
• “The Silence of Others”
• “Three Identical Strangers”
• “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Documentary Short Subject

• “Black Sheep”
• “End Game”
• “Lifeboat”
• “Los Comandos”
• “My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes”
• “A Night at the Garden”
• “Period. End of Sentence.”
• “’63 Boycott”
• “Women of the Gulag”
• “Zion”

Makeup and Hairstyling

• “Black Panther”
• “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• “Border”
• “Mary Queen of Scots”
• “Stan & Ollie”
• “Suspiria”
• “Vice”

Original Score

• “Annihilation”
• “Avengers: Infinity War”
• “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
• “Black Panther”
• “BlacKkKlansman”
• “Crazy Rich Asians”
• “The Death of Stalin”
• “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”
• “First Man”
• “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• “Isle of Dogs”
• “Mary Poppins Returns”
• “A Quiet Place”
• “Ready Player One”
• “Vice”

Original Song

• “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
• “Treasure” from “Beautiful Boy”
• “All The Stars” from “Black Panther”
• “Revelation” from “Boy Erased”
• “Girl In The Movies” from “Dumplin’”
• “We Won’t Move” from “The Hate U Give”
• “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns”
• “Trip A Little Light Fantastic” from “Mary Poppins Returns”
• “Keep Reachin’” from “Quincy”
• “I’ll Fight” from “RBG”
• “A Place Called Slaughter Race” from “Ralph Breaks the Internet”
• “OYAHYTT” from “Sorry to Bother You”
• “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born”
• “Suspirium” from “Suspiria”
• “The Big Unknown” from “Widows”

Animated Short Film

• “Age of Sail”
• “Animal Behaviour”
• “Bao”
• “Bilby”
• “Bird Karma”
• “Late Afternoon”
• “Lost & Found”
• “One Small Step”
• “Pépé le Morse”
• “Weekends”

Live Action Short Film

• “Caroline”
• “Chuchotage”
• “Detainment”
• “Fauve”
• “Icare”
• “Marguerite”
• “May Day”
• “Mother”
• “Skin”
• “Wale”

Visual Effects

• “Ant-Man and the Wasp”
• “Avengers: Infinity War”
• “Black Panther”
• “Christopher Robin”
• “First Man”
• “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”
• “Mary Poppins Returns”
• “Ready Player One”
• “Solo: A Star Wars Story”
• “Welcome to Marwen”

— MDM/GMA News