Often, the judgments have to do with ancillary benefits: Athletics enhance fitness and character but take time away from your studies or the festival of foreign films.
It has been picking up awards since winning the Golden Bear at its world premiere at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival and is one of the front-runners for best foreign language film at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Despite his lasting association with the director, Mr. von Sydow's one previous Oscar nomination was not for a role in a Bergman picture but rather for another Swedish-language part, that of Lassefar in Bille August's "Pelle the Conqueror" (1987), which won an Academy Award for best foreign film as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.