At The Movies It's Oscar Time! Oscar nominations have a Jewish flavor. TOM TUGEND Jewish Telegraphic Agency A film on the Nazi-era rescue of refugee children, most of them Jewish, is one of five nominees for an Oscar in the docu- mentary feature category. on April 2. See next week's Jewish News for an inter- view with the filmmakers.) The Kindertransport film also traces the children's reception in Great Britain and their lives after the war. Britain agreed to accept the children at a time when most other doors were closed to Jewish refugees. Entry was limited to children between 2 Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport chronicles the rescue of some 10,000 children from Nazi-dominated Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia in the 18 months leading up to World War II. The Kindertransport film is one of several Jewish- and Holocaust-themed nominations. The winners will be announced at the Academy Awards presenta- tion March 25 on ABC. One Day Crossing, about a Jewish woman who poses as a Christian in 1944 Budapest to protect her family, was nominated in the category of live action short film. Jan Hrebejk's Divided We Fall, a contender for best foreign-language film, is a Czech dark comedy about a childless couple who hides its former neighbor from the Nazis after the young man escapes from a death camp. (Israel's entry for best foreign-language film, Time of Favor, was not among the five films nominated in its category.) Into the Arms of Strangers is up against Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, a documentary about nine black men on trial for rape during the Depression and the controversial Jewish attorney who defended them. (The film will air on Detroit Public Television and 17, however, which meant their parents had to stay behind. "I am euphoric," said producer Deborah Oppenheimer, whose mother was one of the trans- ported children. "I have talked to the survivors of the transport fea- tured in the film, and they are thrilled. The nomina- tion means that Into the Arms of Strangers will be widely shown, including in many schools." Director and writer Mark Jonathan Harris ascribed the nomination to the subject's universal appeal in showing the traumatic separation of chil- dren and parents. Harris previously directed The Long Way Home, a documentary about Holocaust survivors; it won an Oscar for its producers — the Simon Wiesenthal Center — in 1997. Harris also won an Academy Award in 1968 for the short film The Redwoods. In addition, two non-Jewish actresses are nominat- ed for portraying tormented Jewish characters. Ellen Burstyn is among the contenders for best actress for her role as a Jewish widow spiraling into drug addiction in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. Marcia Gay Harden is up for best supporting actress as Jackson Pollock's Jewish wife, Lee Krasner, in Pollock. ❑ A A scene from "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport," nominated for best documental) , feature. The 73rd Annual Academy Awards airs 8 p.m. Sunday, March 25, on ABC. MMV, Vgar And The Winners Are Local experts talk about the Oscars. AUDREYBECKER Special to the Jewish News T he Jewish News asked several local per- sonalities steeped in the world of film to offer their insights into the upcoming Academy Awards presentation. Here is what they had to say. David Magidson, professor of theater at Wayne State University and director of the Detroit Jewish Film Festival: "Although the first part of the year didn't seem to have as many good movies as we would have thought, the second part really had some terrific movies, and I think all the nominees are good. "For me, I think the best movie of the year is Traffic. 3/23 2001 74 It has a stylistic sense of its content that you don't see in movies, particularly Hollywood movies. And this one has sort of captured a spirit of the independent movies. It's really a terrific piece, and also important in terms of [asking] how America deals with its drug problems. "I really like movies that have stories, and that one has a compelling story. The fact that the story is unre- solved is what moves it over to social content. In other words, it's a story that we don't know the end of yet." Sue Marx of Sue Marx Films Inc., 1988 winner of an Academy Award for Young at Heart and director of 150 corporate, proniotional, political and educational films, videos and television spots: "We've been on a movie marathon since WINNERS on page 76 Juliette Binoche in "Chocolat": "I thought it was an absolutely exquisite film for all the right reasons," says Sue Marx.