Frequent readers of SpoutBlog know that I am head-over-heels in love Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light, a drama set in a Mexican Mennonite community and shot entirely in the almost-lost German dialect, Plautdeitsch. So of course, I was overjoyed to get a press release last night saying that the film had been deemed eligible as Mexico’s submission for the Foreign Language Oscar.

But then I remembered a scandal a couple of years back, involving an Italian film called Private. At the time, the Academy deemed Private ineligible for the Foreign Language category, because the film was shot in a language (Arabic) other than the primary language of its submitting country, and even after Italy protested, AMPAS said they had no intention of changing the rule. “At this point, we don’t foresee any discussions about this issue,” an Academy spokeswoman told Anthony Kaufmann for indieWIRE. “We like to see the countries represented in the films.”

Funnily enough, according to a press release I dug up on Oscars.org, the Academy went on to change that rule the very next year.

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