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This story first appeared in the Nov. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.“>
Everyone in the world wants a piece of Oscar. This year, a record 83 countries, up from 76 in 2013, have submitted entries in the hope of eventually being invited to the festivities at the Dolby Theatre. The Academy’s foreign-language screening committees now are in the process of evaluating all the hopefuls, which will be whittled down to a short list of nine films to be announced in mid-December.
Read more Oscars Attract Best Foreign-Language Film Submissions From a Record 83 Countries
The lineup includes a few films that have played U.S. art houses, including Poland’s Ida (the story of a nun-in-training who discovers secrets about her family’s past), which picked up a tidy $3.7 million. There also are festival winners like Turkey’s Winter Sleep, a tale of the clash between rich and poor in a small town, which collected the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes. And there are returning countries like Cuba, which sat out the race for the past two years but has come back this time with Conducta. Meanwhile, Kosovo, Malta, Mauritania and Panama all have submitted their first entries ever, hoping for some beginner’s luck.
•••
NORTH AMERICA
CANADA
Mommy
Xavier Dolan, director
CENTRAL AMERICA
COSTA RICA
Red Princesses
Laura Astorga Carrera, director
An autobiographical tale from the daughter of Sandinista revolutionaries.
CUBA
Conducta
Ernesto Daranas Serrano, director
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Cristo Rey
Leticia Tonos, director
MEXICO
Cantinflas
Sebastian del Amo, director
PANAMA
Invasion
Abner Benaim, director
SOUTH AMERICA
ARGENTINA
Wild Tales
Damian Szifron, director
BOLIVIA
Forgotten
Carlos Bolado, director
BRAZIL
The Way He Looks
Daniel Ribeiro, director
A hit at LGBT film fests, it follows a blind teenage boy’s coming of age.
CHILE
To Kill a Man
Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, director
COLOMBIA
Mateo
Maria Gamboa, director
ECUADOR
Silence in Dreamland
Tito Molina, director
PERU
The Gospel of the Flesh
Eduardo Mendoza de Echave, director
URUGUAY
Mr. Kaplan
Alvaro Brechner, director
VENEZUELA
The Liberator
Alberto Arvelo and Bertrand Bonello, directors
L.A. Phil conductor Gustavo Dudamel scored this film.
EUROPE
AUSTRIA
The Dark Valley
Andreas Prochaska, director
BELGIUM
Two Days, One Night
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, directors
DENMARK
Sorrow and Joy
Nils Malmros, director
ESTONIA
Tangerines
Zaza Urushadze, director
FINLAND
Concrete Night
Pirjo Honkasalo, director
FRANCE
Saint Laurent
Bertrand Bonello, director
This biopic borrowed dozens of vintage designs from a private collection.
GERMANY
Beloved Sisters
Dominik Graf, director
GREECE
Little England
Pantelis Voulgaris, director
ICELAND
Life in a Fishbowl
Baldvin Zophoniasson, director
IRELAND
The Gift
Tom Collins, director
ITALY
Human Capital
Paolo Virzi, director
LUXEMBOURG
Never Die Young
Pol Cruchten, director
MALTA
Simshar
Rebecca Cremona, director
NETHERLANDS
Accused
Paula van der Oest, director
NORWAY
1001 Grams
Bent Hamer, director
PORTUGAL
What Now? Remind Me
Joaquim Pinto, director
SLOVAKIA
A Step Into the Dark
Miloslav Luther, director
SLOVENIA
Seduce Me
Marko Santic, director
SPAIN
Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed
David Trueba, director
SWEDEN
Force Majeure
Ruben Ostlund, director
SWITZERLAND
The Circle
Stefan Haupt, director
UNITED KINGDOM
Little Happiness
Nihat Seven, director
The U.K. entry actually is a Turkish-language co-production about an honor killing.
EASTERN EUROPE/RUSSIA
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
With Mom
Faruk Loncarevic, director
BULGARIA
Bulgarian Rhapsody
Ivan Nitchev, director
CROATIA
Cowboys
Tomislav Mrsic, director
CZECH REPUBLIC
Fair Play
Andrea Sedlackova, director
GEORGIA
Corn Island
George Ovashvili, director
HUNGARY
White God
Kornel Mundruczo, director
KOSOVO
Three Windows and a Hanging
Isa Qosja, director
LATVIA
Rocks in My Pockets
Signe Baumane, director
LITHUANIA
The Gambler
Ignas Jonynas, director
MACEDONIA
To the Hilt
Stole Popov, director
MOLDOVA
The Unsaved
Igor Cobileanski, director
MONTENEGRO
The Kids From the Marx and Engels Street
Nikola Vukcevic, director
POLAND
Ida
Pawel Pawlikowski, director
ROMANIA
The Japanese Dog
Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, director
RUSSIA
Leviathan
Andrey Zvyagintsev, director
SERBIA
See You in Montevideo
Dragan Bjelogrlic, director
UKRAINE
The Guide
Oles Sanin, director
ASIA
AZERBAIJAN
Nabat
Elchin Musaoglu, director
BANGLADESH
Glow of the Firefly
Khalid Mahmood Mithu, director
CHINA
The Nightingale
Philippe Muyl, director
The tale of an old man and young girl on aroad trip, it’s a Chinese-French co-production with a Chinese co-writer and a French director.
HONG KONG
The Golden Era
Ann Hui, director
INDIA
Liar’s Dice
Geetu Mohandas, director
INDONESIA
Soekarno
Hanung Bramantyo, director
JAPAN
The Light Shines Only There
Mipo Oh, director
NEPAL
Jhola
Yadav Kumar Bhattarai, director
PAKISTAN
Dukhtar
Afia Nathaniel, director
PHILIPPINES
Norte, the End of History
Lav Diaz, director
SINGAPORE
Sayang Disayang
Sanif Olek, director
SOUTH KOREA
Haemoo
Shim Sung-bo, director
TAIWAN
Ice Poison
Midi Z, director
THAILAND
The Teacher’s Diary
Nithiwat Tharathorn, director
MIDDLE EAST
AFGHANISTAN
A Few Cubic Meters of Love
Jamshid Mahmoudi, director
IRAN
Today
Reza Mirkarimi, director
IRAQ
Mardan
Batin Ghobadi, director
ISRAEL
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, directors
Directed by two sisters, it has become part of the debate about its country’s divorce laws.
KYRGYZSTAN
Queen of the Mountains
Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, director
LEBANON
Ghadi
Amin Dora, director
PALESTINE
Eyes of a Thief
Najwa Najjar, director
TURKEY
Winter Sleep
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
AUSTRALIA
Charlie’s Country
Rolf de Heer, director
NEW ZEALAND
The Dead Lands
Toa Fraser, director
AFRICA
EGYPT
Factory Girl
Mohamed Khan, director
ETHIOPIA
Difret
Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, director
Angelina Jolie executive produced this Sundance award winner about a kidnapped 14-year-old girl.
MAURITANIA
Timbuktu
Abderrahmane Sissako, director
MOROCCO
The Red Moon
Hassan Benjelloun, director
SOUTH AFRICA
Elelwani
Ntshavheni Wa Luruli, director
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