Tonight or tomorrow -- depending on how quick they are with the press release -- we'll learn which foreign film submissions made the finals for the Oscar nominations. There are always nine. We don't know why they settled on that number as 10 makes more sense (in a 50/50 kind of way) and 15 would make this category more symmetrical with the other specialty category of Documentary Feature. But if you're curious about how the process of whittling all this down works, you should check out Anne Thompson's breakdown.
One thing that's easy to forget about this complex process is that the actual five Oscar nominations that come from this nine-wide finalist list are decided on by yet another panel, one that changes each year and usually includes a few big names: Florence Foster Jenkins co-stars Streep & Grant were both on that final nominating committee last year for example.
It'll be fun to speculate, as always, which 6 films made the initial list from the nominating committee and which 3 came from the executive committee. In some years it's easy to spot the difference but last year it was nearly impossible to tell since it was such a strong finalist list. Until then, please catch up on our reviews and interviews in case you missed them.
Who gets axed? We'll find out soon.
OFFICIAL OSCAR SUBMISSIONS
85 Submissions | 17 Reviews | 14 Interviews
Other Deep Dives Into This Year's Race
Familiar Actors | All 85 Trailers | Debut Directors | Female Directors
Albania: Chromium (directed by Bujar Alimani)
Algeria: The Well (dir Lotfi Bouchouchi)
Argentina: The Distinguished Citizen (dir Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat)
Australia: Tanna (dir Bentley Dean, Martin Butler)
Austria: Stefan Zweig... (dir Maria Schrader) INTERVIEW
Bangladesh: The Unnamed (dir Tauquir Ahmed)
Belgium: The Ardennes (dir Robin Pront) INTERVIEW
Bolivia: Sealed Cargo (dir Julia Vargas Weise)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Death in Sarajevo (dir Danis Tanovic) REVIEW
Brazil: Little Secret (dir David Schurmann) INTERVIEW
Bulgaria: Losers (dir Ivaylo Hristov)
Cambodia: Before the Fall (dir Ian White)
Canada: It’s Only the End of the World (dir Xavier Dolan)
Chile: Neruda (dir Pablo Larraín) REVIEW
Nominated for Critics Choice and Globe
China: Xuan Zang (dir Huo Jianqi)
Colombia: Alias Maria (dir José Luis Rugeles) INTERVIEW
Costa Rica: About Us (dir Hernán Jiménez)
Croatia: On the Other Side (dir Zrinko Ogresta)
Pavel Giroud directed Cuba's "The Companion" about the HIV epidemic
Cuba: The Companion (dir Pavel Giroud) INTERVIEW
Czech Republic: Lost in Munich (dir Petr Zelenka)
Denmark: Land of Mine (dir Martin Zandvliet)
Dominican Republic: Sugar Fields (dir Fernando Báez)
Ecuador: Such Is Life in the Tropics (dir Sebastián Cordero)
Egypt: Clash (dir Mohamed Diab)
Estonia: Mother (dir Kadri Kõuaar) REVIEW
Finland: The Happiest Day in... (dir Juho Kuosmanen) INTERVIEW
France: Elle (dir Paul Verhoeven) REVIEW
Won the Critics Choice and is nominated for the Globe
Georgia: House of Others (dir Rusudan Glurjidze)
Germany: Toni Erdmann (dir Maren Ade) REVIEW
Toni Erdmann won the EFA and nominated for Critics Choice. Globe, Spirit Award
Greece: Chevalier (dir Athina Rachel Tsangari) REVIEW
This film is nominated for the Spirit Award
Hong Kong: Port of Call (dir Philip Yung)
Hungary: Kills on Wheels (dir Attila Till)
Iceland: Sparrows (dir Rúnar Rúnarsson)
India: Interrogation (dir Vetri Maaran)
Indonesia: Letters from Prague (dir Angga Dwimas Sasongko)
Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman) is one of two directors on this list that have already won this category. Pedro Almodóvar is the other
Iran: The Salesman (dir Asghar Farhadi) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Nominated for Critics Choice and Globe
Iraq: El Clásico (dir Halkawt Mustafa)
Israel: Sand Storm (dir Elite Zexer) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Italy: Fire at Sea (dir Gianfranco Rosi) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Fire at Sea is also eligible for documentary feature
Japan: Nagasaki: Memories of My Son (dir Yoji Yamada)
Jordan: 3000 Nights (dir Mai Masri)
Kazakhstan: Amanat (dir Satybaldy Narymbetov)
Kosovo: Home Sweet Home (dir Faton Bajraktari)
Kyrgyzstan: A Father’s Will (dir Bakyt Mukul, Dastan Zhapar Uulu)
Latvia: Dawn (dir Laila Pakalnina)
Lebanon: Very Big Shot (dir Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya)
Lithuania: Seneca’s Day (dir Kristijonas Vildziunas)
Luxembourg: Voices from Chernobyl (dir Pol Cruchten)
Macedonia: The Liberation of Skopje (dir Rade Šerbedžija, Danilo Šerbedžija)
Malaysia: Beautiful Pain (dir Tunku Mona Riza)
Mexico: Desierto (dir Jonás Cuarón) REVIEW
Montenegro: The Black Pin (dir Ivan Marinović)
Morocco: A Mile in My Shoes (dir Said Khallaf)
Nepal: The Black Hen (dir Min Bahadur Bham)
Paula Van der Oest was nominated for "Zus & Zo" - can she do it again for "Tonio"
Netherlands: Tonio (dir Paula van der Oest) INTERVIEW
New Zealand: A Flickering Truth (dir Pietra Brettkelly) REVIEW
Norway: The King’s Choice (dir Erik Poppe)
Pakistan: Mah-e-Mir (dir Anjum Shahzad)
Palestine: The Idol (dir Hany Abu-Assad)
Panama: Salsipuedes (dir Ricardo Aguilar Navarro, Manolito Rodríguez)
Peru: Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) (dir Juan Daniel F. Molero)
Philippines: Ma’ Rosa (dir Brillante Ma Mendoza)
Poland: Afterimage (dir Andrzej Wajda)
Portugal: Letters from War (dir Ivo M. Ferreira)
Romania: Sieranevada (dir Cristi Puiu)
Russia: Paradise(dir Andrei Konchalovsky)
Saudi Arabia: Barakah Meets Barakah (dir Mahmoud Sabbagh)
Serbia: Train Driver’s Diary (dir Milos Radovic)
Oscar is stingy with Asian cinema in this category -- which we'll NEVER understand -- but Apprentice is a strong film. Can Boo Junfeng get Singapore its first nod?
Singapore: Apprentice (dir Boo Junfeng) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Slovakia: Eva Nová (dir Marko Skop)
Slovenia: Houston, We Have a Problem! (dir Žiga Virc)
South Africa: Call Me Thief (dir Daryne Joshua)
South Korea: The Age of Shadows (dir Kim Jee-woon) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Spain: Julieta (dir Pedro Almodóvar) REVIEW
Nominated for Critics Choice
Sweden: A Man Called Ove (dir Hannes Holm)
Switzerland: My Life as a Zucchini (dir Claude Barras) REVIEW
My Life as a Zucchini is also eligible for animated feature
Taiwan: Hang in There, Kids! (dir Laha Mebow)
Thailand: Karma (dir Kanittha Kwunyoo)
Turkey: Cold of Kalandar (dir Mustafa Kara)
Cold of Kalander won the Asian Pacific Screen Awards
Ukraine: Ukrainian Sheriffs (dir Roman Bondarchuk)
Oscar rarely gets into horror but Babak Anvari has won much praise for his ghost story debut with "Under the Shadow"
United Kingdom: Under the Shadow (dir Babak Anvari) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
Nominated for Spirit and won 3 British Independent Film Awards
Uruguay: Breadcrumbs (dir Manane Rodríguez)
Venezuela: From Afar (dir Lorenzo Vigas) REVIEW & INTERVIEW
From Afar took the Golden Lion at Venice
Vietnam: Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass (dir Victor Vu)
Yemen: I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced (dir Khadija Al-Salami)
WHICH FILMS DO YOU THINK WILL MAKE THE LIST?
We're currently guessing Germany, France, Denmark, Chile, The Netherlands, Iran, Poland, Spain, and Sweden for the finalist list but there are so many other interesting possibilities. If we could add an alternate top nine should any of those falter let's go with: Italy, Finland, Israel, the UK, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland, Turkey, and Serbia. This should not be confused for a preferences list. We haven't seen enough of them to do that yet.