Odds to Win Best Foreign Film 2009 Oscars
The odds to win Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars were available at BetUS.com.
"This one falls under ‘obscure' category," points out Gambling911.com Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien. "The value tends to be quite good."
This is also a bet not offered at many online gambling venues either.
Waltz With Bashir was the -300 favorite, paying $100 for every $300 bet (with the $300 bet and $100 profit paid if Waltz With Bashir wins for Best Foreign Language Film).
Waltz With Bashir is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. The film documents the attempts of Folman, a 1982 Lebanon War-veteran, to recover his lost memories of the events revolving around the Sabra and Shatila massacre. This film and $9.99, also released in 2008, are the first Israeli animated feature-length films released in movie theaters.
Like nearly all Israeli films, this one was banned in most Arab countries including Lebanon, however, there has been a movement to get the film screened by critics in that country.
Remarkably, 96 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics gave Waltz With Bashir positive reviews.
The Class is an Estonian film that is about school violence directed by Ilmar Raag. The theme may be a bit violent for Academy Awards judges, not to mention the film has homosexual undertones (remembering how Brokeback Mountain failed to win an Oscar a few years back after being instilled as the favorite). The Class would pay out $600 for every $100 bet at BetUS.com if it were to win.
The Class is a story about two boys who are bullied by their classmates then exact revenge.
Since the movie was released, two school shootings have taken place in nearby Finland - the Jokela school shooting and the Kauhajoki school shooting. In analysis of both events, the movie has been raised as an illustration by columnists and other media pundits.
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a film about the early years of the West German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF), which was the most active and prominent terrorist group in post-war West Germany. It is Germany's submission for Best Foreign Language Film and had odds of +750 for a payout potential of $750 on every $100 bet.
Departures is an interesting film to consider since it has received a sizeable number of bets, pushing it from 4th most likely to win to 2nd most likely, at least among the oddsmakers. It is Japan's entry into the Foreign Film category.
Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist in an orchestra in Tokyo, loses his job because of dissolution of the orchestra. After quitting on himself as a professional cellist, he decided to sell his cello which he recently purchased for 18 million yen, then move back to Sakata, Yamagata, his old hometown along with his wife to find a new job. One day, he found a classified ad of NK Agency entitled "Assisting departures", then had a job interview thinking it is a travel agency. But at the interview, he discovered that NK is an acronym standing for encoffinment (納棺 "NouKan"?), assisting "departed"...
And finally, Revanche is an Academy Award-nominated 2008 Austrian thriller film written and directed by Götz Spielmann. It centers on the ill-fated love story between a Viennese ex-con and a Ukrainian prostitute who get involved in a bankrobbery. It has the best paying odds - $2500 for every $100 bet should it win.
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Jordan Bach, Gambling911.com
