Oscar foreign film field strongest in years

LOS ANGELES, Feb 17 (Reuters) Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, whose fantasy film set in fascist Spain, ''Pan's Labyrinth,'' has become an international hit, says he thinks a lot about water and the defunct East German secret police.

As well he might. Del Toro's film is one of three major contenders for the best foreign film Oscar.

His main challengers are ''Water,'' a Canadian film about child widows in 1930s India set almost in the Ganges itself, and ''The Lives of Others,'' a tale of totalitarian eavesdropping set in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell.

Oscar experts say those films and the two other nominees -- ''Days of Glory,'' an Algerian film about mistreated North African soldiers fighting for France in World War Two, and ''After the Wedding,'' a Danish film about family breakdown -- are the strongest foreign film category in recent years.

All five are first-class films that have won rave reviews, including this from Anthony Lane of The New Yorker: ''If there is any justice, this year's Academy Award for best foreign language film will go to 'The Lives of Others,' a movie about a world in which there is no justice.'' And not only are the films critic-pleasers, but the choice for best foreign film takes place on a level playing field, so it is hard to declare one of them a slam-dunk.

Unlike other Oscar categories, all who vote for best foreign film must sign a release stating they have actually seen all the contenders and watched them in a movie theater rather than on a DVD screener.

That has changed the nature of the competition. Some films look especially good on television-sized DVD screens and have won because of the way they were presented to Oscar voters.

Many, for example, think that watching ''Shakespeare in Love'' on a cassette or DVD helped the sprightly comedy beat the war drama ''Saving Private Ryan,'' which needed a big screen to show off its effects.

STRONGER CATEGORY Producer Mark Johnson, the head of the Academy's foreign film section, said several changes in the selection process helped strengthen the category, which in past years had been embarrassed by overlooking key foreign films.

The number of contenders was first reduced to nine by a committee that watched 61 entrants. Then Johnson invited 30 Academy members to trim the nine to five -- which they did at what amounted to a mini-film festival.

''Pan's Labyrinth'' has been the most successful at the box office, taking in more than 20 million dollars in the United States, a record for a Spanish-language film. It has five more Oscar nominations, including makeup, art direction and cinematography.

But del Toro is less impressed with his contribution than with his competitors.

''I have seen all the others and I must say I love 'Water' and 'The Lives of Others.' I really enjoyed them,'' he said.

In a sense, ''Lives of Others'' takes on a similar theme to ''Labyrinth'' -- how to react to oppression.

''When you deal with dark persons in history, the best way to address the matter is with a parable or a fable,'' del Toro said. ''You don't want to do a strictly historical film or a simple fairy tale.'' Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, who directed ''After the Wedding,'' said just being nominated was a great honor.

''It means a lot to a small country like Denmark,'' Bier said in a recent interview. ''We are very proud of our film industry.'' REUTERS AB RN2316