If the last few years are any indication, the Academy Awards have been more on-point with their Best Foreign Language Film selection than their Best Picture line-up. With winners such as Amour, The Secret In Their Eyes and A Separation, as well as nominees like Dogtooth, A Prophet and The White Ribbon, their final selection of five more often than not (despite some disqualifications due to their petty rules) represent some of finest offerings in film, period.
For next year’s ceremonies, they’ve now settled on a record-setting 76 countries that will take take part and we’re here today to provide an overview of the selection. While Palme d’Or winner Blue is Warmest Color is out of the running due to the aforementioned trivial rules, some other notable Cannes premieres are present, including previous winner Asghar Farhadi with The Past, as well as Thomas Vinterberg‘s The Hunt, The Great Beauty and Borgman. This ceremony also includes first entries from Moldova and Saudi Arabia with Adrian Popovici‘s All God’s Children and Haifaa Al Mansour‘s Wadjda, respectively.
Check out all 76 contenders below and on the following pages, along with their trailers, and click titles for reviews and other coverage, if available:
Afghanistan – (Wajma – An Afghan Love Story; Barmak Akram)
Albania – (Agon; Robert Budina)
Argentina – (The German Doctor; Lucía Puenzo)
Australia – (The Rocket; Kim Mordaunt)
Austria – (The Wall; Julian Pölsler)
Azerbaijan – (Steppe Man; Shamil Aliyev)
Bangladesh – (Television; Mostofa Sarwar Farooki)
Belgium – (The Broken Circle Breakdown; Felix van Groeningen)
Bosnia and Herzegovina – (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker; Danis Tanovic)
Brazil – (Neighboring Sounds; Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Bulgaria – (The Color of the Chameleon; Emil Hristov)
Cambodia – (The Missing Picture; Rithy Panh)
Canada – (Gabrielle; Louise Archambault)
Chad – (GriGris; Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
Chile – (Gloria; Sebastián Lelio)
China – (Back to 1942; Feng Xiaogang)
Colombia – (La Playa DC; Juan Andrés Arango)
Croatia – (Halima’s Path; Arsen Anton Ostojic)
Czech Republic – (The Don Juans; Jiri Menzel)
Denmark – (The Hunt; Thomas Vinterberg)
Dominican Republic – (Quien Manda?; Ronni Castillo)
Ecuador – (The Porcelain Horse; Javier Andrade)
Egypt – (Winter of Discontent; Ibrahim El Batout)
Estonia – (Free Range; Veiko Ounpuu)
Finland – (Disciple; Ulrika Bengts)
France – (Renoir; Gilles Bourdos)
Georgia – (In Bloom; Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross)
Germany – (Two Lives; Georg Maas)
Greece – (Boy Eating the Bird’s Food; Ektoras Lygizos)
Hong Kong – (The Grandmaster; Wong Kar-wai)
Hungary – (The Notebook; Janos Szasz)
Iceland – (Of Horses and Men; Benedikt Erlingsson)
India – (The Good Road; Gyan Correa)
Indonesia – (Sang Kiai; Rako Prijanto)
Iran – (The Past; Asghar Farhadi)
Israel – (Bethlehem; Yuval Adler)
Italy – (The Great Beauty; Paolo Sorrentino)
Japan – (The Great Passage; Ishii Yuya)
Kazakhstan – (Shal; Yermek Tursunov)
Latvia – (Mother, I Love You; Janis Nords)
Lebanon – (Blind Intersections; Lara Saba)
Lithuania – (Conversations on Serious Topics; Giedre Beinoriute)
Luxembourg – (Blind Spot; Christophe Wagner)
Mexico – (Heli; Amat Escalante)
Moldova – (All God’s Children; Adrian Popovici)
Montenegro – (Ace of Spades – Bad Destiny; Drasko Djurovic)
Morocco – (Horses of God; Nabil Ayouch)
Nepal – (Soongava: Dance of the Orchids; Subarna Thapa)
Netherlands – (Borgman; Alex van Warmerdam)
New Zealand – (White Lies; Dana Rotberg)
Norway – (I Am Yours; Iram Haq)
Pakistan – (Zinda Bhaag; Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi)
Palestine – (Omar; Hany Abu-Assad)
Peru – (The Cleaner; Adrian Saba)
Philippines – (Transit; Hannah Espia)
Poland – (Walesa Man of Hope; Andrzej Wajda)
Portugal – (Lines of Wellington; Valeria Sarmiento)
Romania – (Child’s Pose; Calin Peter Netzer)
Russia – (Stalingrad; Fedor Bondarchuk)
Saudi Arabia – (Wadjda; Haifaa Al Mansour)
Serbia – (Circles; Srdan Golubovic)
Singapore – (Ilo Ilo; Anthony Chen)
Slovak Republic – (My Dog Killer; Mira Fornay)
Slovenia – (Class Enemy; Rok Bicek)
South Africa – (Four Corners; Ian Gabriel)
South Korea – (Juvenile Offender; Kang Yi-kwan)
Spain – (15 Years Plus a Day; Gracia Querejeta)
Sweden – (Eat Sleep Die; Gabriela Pichler)
Switzerland – (More than Honey; Markus Imhoof)
Taiwan – (Soul; Chung Mong-Hong)
Thailand – (Countdown; Nattawut Poonpiriya)
Turkey – (The Butterfly’s Dream; Yilmaz Erdogan)
Ukraine – (Paradjanov; Serge Avedikian and Olena Fetisova)
United Kingdom – (Metro Manila; Sean Ellis)
Uruguay – (Anina; Alfredo Soderguit)
Venezuela – (Breach in the Silence; Luis Alejandro Rodríguez and Andrés Eduardo Rodríguez)
The Oscar nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 16th and the ceremony is to be held on Sunday, March 2nd.
Which films are you rooting for?