The Academy to Screen The Bicycle Thief

It was truly one of the Academy’s best moments in 1950 that they awarded Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief with an honorary award for “best foreign language film in 1949.” After all of these years it still feels strange that they need to have that category at all, particularly now, since films in other countries are evolving in ways American films just aren’t.

Martin Scorsese will inaugurate the event Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Member Selects” evening on Monday, May 16, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in New York City. Scorsese will introduce the program, which is part of the Academy’s ongoing “Monday Nights with Oscar” film series.

They called it “the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1949,” but really, why qualify it at all? It was one of the best released in 1949 period. It resonates still.