Okay, it’s true that I haven’t seen any of this year’s nominees for best foreign-language film. Maybe “The Counterfeiters” was the best of the bunch.

Still, on principle, it bugs me: Israel finally has a great chance to win its first Oscar (for “Beaufort”) — and loses to an Austrian picture about the Holocaust!?! To add insult to injury, it was written and directed by director-writer Stefan Ruzowitzky, a descendant of Nazis and/or Nazi sympathizers.

Yes, Ruzowitzky, was quite gracious in victory, paying homage to the Jewish directors who were exiled from his native land prior to World War II. But the bottom line is there should be a rule against Israeli films losing to Holocaust-themed movies made in countries that sided with the Nazis.

And don’t get me started on Leni Riefenstahl.

The Coen Brothers, directors of classics such as The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou, as well as this year’s eight-time Academy Award nominee No Country for Old Men, will be directing a film adaptation of Michael Chabon’s brilliant novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. The film will be produced by Scott Rudin.

OMG OMG OMG. Cannot. Contain. Excitement.

Variety reports:

For their next collaboration, the “No Country for Old Men” team of Joel and Ethan Coen and producer Scott Rudin will transfer another Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s work into a film.

Columbia Pictures has acquired screen rights to the bestselling Michael Chabon novel “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” with the Coens writing, directing and producing with Rudin.

[...]

The Coens will turn their attention to the book after they shoot “A Serious Man” for Working Title and Focus.

(Hat tip to /film)

[Update] JTA news brief here. Feature story to follow…

Here are two keepers: a preview of Adam Sandler’s upcoming flick about a top Israeli commando who wants to become a hairdresser and British pop singer Lauren Rose performing her version of Hava Nagila, which is climbing to the top of the charts in England:

UPDATE: JTA’s resident music buff, Jacob Berkman (that’ll get fellow writer Ben Harris steamed), says Rosen is simply ripping off this guy’s holiday-timed Hava Nagila from two years ago.

Check out Israeli President Shimon Peres getting an earful from David Lynch. Now Peres knows how the Arabs and right-wing Jews felt listening to all his talk in the 1990s about a new Middle East …