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Yesterday afternoon, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced which movies will be competing to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Feature. This first long list marks an important benchmark in the season. Yes, we can actually begin narrowing things down. To be fair, this is a category that doesn’t get the attention of Best Picture or Best Actor/Best Actress, but it’s still a big deal. The Academy has narrowed things down to 87 films, just shy of the record set last year. That many countries submitting movies for Oscar consideration is wonderful, especially since I’ve seen a handful of these and they’re largely excellent. The only notable exclusion was that Italy did not choose Happy as Lazarro to be their selection, despite the backing of Martin Scorsese and Netflix. That country opted for Dogman from Matteo Garrone, instead. Aside from that, it...

‘Jirga’

Benjamin Gilmour’s Afghanistan-set drama Jirga will carry Australia’s hopes of being nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The international recognition as Australia’s official submission follows the film’s international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and winning the $100,000 best film prize, Australia’s richest, at CinfestOZ.

Produced and distributed by John Maynard, the film stars Sam Smith as a former Australian soldier who returns to Afghanistan seeking forgiveness and puts his life in the hands of the village justice system – the Jirga.

There are 87 countries vying for the prize, including first-time entrants Malawi and Niger and high-profile contenders such as Mexico’s Roma and Poland’s Cold War, both of which are hoping to break out of the foreign race and earn nominations for best picture, best director and more.

Gilmour said: “We are thrilled about the honour of representing Australia.

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed, a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi, which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration in the foreign language category for the 91st Academy Awards.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 22 and the ceremony will be held on Feb. 24 at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre. Malawi and Niger are first-time entrants. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the announcement on Monday.

High-profile titles include Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” the Mexican entry; Denmark’s “The Guilty”; Germany’s “Never Look Away,” from previous Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” the Japanese entry that won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum,” the Cannes jury prize winner from Lebanon; and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” the Cannes best director prize winner from Poland.

The 2018 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;

Argentina, “El Ángel,...

A whopping 87 countries submitted entries in the Foreign-Language Film race at the 2019 Oscars. That is down by five from last year’s record 92 submissions but up by two from 2017, which had broken the benchmark of 83 set in 2015. The nations represented ranged from A (Afghanistan) to Y (Yemen). Among the contenders is the Mexican entry “Roma” by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron (“Gravity”). This Venice Film Festival winner is a strong contender in both this and the Best Picture race at the Oscars.

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film is made difficult by the two-step process.

First, the several hundred academy members of the Foreign-Language Film screening committee are required to watch a number of the submissions (upwards of a dozen) over a two-month period that ends in mid December. They will rate them from 6 to 10 and their top six vote-getters make it to the next round, as...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the official list of submissions for the 2019 Oscar for best foreign language film. There are 87 countries vying for the prize this awards season, including first-time entrants Malawi and Niger. Included among the titles are high-profile contenders such as Mexico’s “Roma” and Poland’s “Cold War,” both of which are vying to break out of the foreign race and earn nominations for best picture, best director, and more.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Click here to view predictions for the foreign language Oscar race from IndieWire’s awards editor Anne Thompson.

2018 Foreign Oscar Submissions

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director

Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director

Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director

Australia, “Jirga,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced today that 87 countries have qualified for this year’s Foreign Language Film competition. With some of the

strongest entries in recent years this is shaping up as one of the richest fields of contenders in memory. Of course one of the Netflix titles, Mexico’s Roma from director Alfonso Cuaron has been widely acclaimed at numerous festivals and already won top prize at Venice which makes it the front runner here. It is also expected to be in contention for a Best Picture nomination as well as other categories and that could enhance its chances. However could an upset be in the offing? I would say there are a number of equally fine movies in the mix here including Japan’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Shoplifters; Denmark’s riveting The Guilty; Germany’s epic Never Look Away from previous Oscar winner...

Eighty-seven films have qualified in the 2018 Oscars race for Best Foreign Language Film, the Academy announced on Monday.

The number is five less than last year’s record of 92 entries, but significantly larger than the 60-odd qualifying films that were the norm only a few years ago. The 2018 race is also expected to be one of the most competitive in years, with a number of esteemed international directors and award-winning films competing for only nine spots on the shortlist and five nominations.

Los Angeles-based volunteers from all branches of the Academy will now watch all the eligible films at AMPAS screenings at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. This year, the Academy has made it easier to qualify to vote, dropping the number of films each voter must see from 17 or 18 down to 12 and eliminating the color-coded groups that made each voter...

Argentina has selected Luis Ortega’s well-received Cannes Film Festival crime drama The Angel (El Angel) as its contender for the Foreign Language Oscar. The film, produced by Pedro Almodóvar, broke box office records in its home country; The Orchard acquired U.S. rights after its Un Certain Regard bow and has set a November 9 theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles for the film before rolling it out nationally.

The pic from Ortega, who directed and co-wrote with Sergio Olguin and Rodolfo Palacios, is a portrait based on Argentina’s real-life serial killer dubbed “The Angel of Death.” The pic picks up the story when Carlitos (Lorenzo Ferro), a 17-year-old with movie star swagger, blond curls and a baby face in 1970s Buenos Aires, meets Ramon (Chino Darín) who embark on a journey of discovery, love and murder. When he is finally caught, the press dubs Carlitos “The...

Italy has chosen Matteo Garrone’s well-received Cannes drama Dogman as its Foreign Language Oscar hopeful.

Marcello Fonte stars as Marcello, a gentle dog groomer who finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship with Simone (Edoardo Pesce), a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighbourhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello must submit to an unexpected act of vengeance. Fonte won the Best Actor prize at Cannes.

Garrone’s Archimede produced alongside Rai Cinema’s Paolo Del Brocco, Le Pacte’s Jean Labadie, and Recorded Picture Company’s Jeremy Thomas. Magnolia has U.S. rights. Garrone’s previous credits include Gomorrah, Reality and Tale Of Tales, all of which played at Cannes.

Italy has been the most successful country in the Academy’s Foreign Language category, scoring 14 wins and 31 nominations. The country’s last nomination and win in the category came in 2013 with Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty.

France has selected Emmanuel Finkiel’s Memoir of War as its official selection for the Oscars’ Foreign Language film race. The pic, which Finkiel adapted from Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical 1944 novel set in Nazi-occupied Paris, stars Mélanie Thierry in a story of love, loss, and perseverance against the backdrop of war.

Music Box Films holds U.S. rights to Memoir of War and released it in theaters last month.

The film came out on top on a shortlist that included Gaspar Noé’s Cannes buzz title Climax, the late Claude Lanzmann’s Les Quatre Sœurs, Mademoiselle De Joncquières by Emmanuel Mouret, and Xavier Legrand’s Jusqu’à La Garde. The choice was finalized today by France’s National Film Center (Cnc), which said the film, known in France as La Douleur (The Pain), has seen 350,00 submissions in French theaters.

The plot centers on Duras (Thierry) who is is an active...

Updated with additional release date info: Gustav Möller’s The Guilty, which won this year’s Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Audience Award, has been selected by Denmark as the country’s official entry into the Oscar Foreign Language Film race.

The thriller, Möller’s directorial debut, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures in Park City and is hitting U.S. theaters October 19 in 25 markets. It next screens at Fantastic Fest which launches today.

The film centers on a police officer (Jakob Cedergren), who, when demoted to desk work, expects a sleepy beat as an emergency dispatcher. That changes when he answers a panicked phone call from a kidnapped woman who then disconnects abruptly. Confined to the police station, he is forced to use others as his eyes and ears as the severity of the crime slowly becomes more clear, with all the action set in his single location.

Denmark has...

Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum,” the winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, has been selected by Lebanon as its candidate for the upcoming foreign-language Oscar race.

“Capernaum,” which was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics ahead of its world premiere at Cannes, features mostly non-professional actors and tells the story of a 12-year-old boy, Zein, who takes his parents to court “for giving me life” in a world of pain and suffering.

“Capernaum” was written by Labaki, along with Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Kesrouani, Georges Khabbaz and Labaki’s husband, Khaled Mouzanar, who also produced the film and composed the music. The movie opens in Lebanon on Thursday. Sony Pictures Classics will release it in the U.S. on Dec. 14. Spc had previously handled “Where Do We Go Now?”, Labaki’s 2011 film.

In its review, Variety said “Capernaum” tackled its subject matter “with intelligence and heart,” and called Labaki...