It was noticeable, watching the Oscars, that there were a lot of foreigners ascending the stage of the Kodak Theatre to accept Academy Awards.

The show started with Alexandra Byrne, the British costume designer, being given a statuette for her work on the costumes for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and culminated in all four of the main actor and actress awards going to Europeans.

The high profile of foreign talent was as striking as the shift towards independent studios and away from big Hollywood studios in the 1990s, led by Miramax.

It strikes me as admirable that Hollywood has demonstrated once again its openness to foreign actors and off-screen talent at a time when there are fears in other US industries about foreign competition and the outsourcing of jobs.

Hollywood has become perhaps the most open industry in its employment patterns apart from Silicon Valley, which draws software engineers from around the world, and Wall Street, where many different nationalities work in investment banks.

One reason for this openness is that, as I have discussed here before, international box office sales are outstripping the US box office in importance. That means that many more films are shot abroad and feature actors from other countries.

In addition, Hollywood has become so used to exploiting tax loopholes for film production in countries including the UK and Germany that global production is the rule rather than the exception. The Bourne Ultimatum, which provided Oscars to US sound technicians, was directed by Paul Greengrass, a Brit, and largely filmed in Europe.

For all that, Hollywood’s willingness to award Oscars irrespective of nationality is a tribute to its open culture. Some other US industries could learn from it.

February 26, 2008 3:51am in Entertainment | Comment