Iranian director Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation sucked up a lot of the oxygen regarding the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submissions heading into the ceremony a couple weeks ago, and, indeed, ended up taking home the Academy Award. But writer-director Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, the official Israeli entry, and one of the final five nominees, is an equally stirring work. The winner of the Best Screenplay award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the movie locates the universality in an incredibly specific arena, telling the story of a latent rivalry between father and son professors, each of whom has dedicated their lives to different branches of Talmudic study. I recently had a chance to chat one-on-one with the 43-year-old award-winning filmmaker, talking with Cedar about comparisons of his movie to A Separation, life inside the Oscar bubble and reverse immigration. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.