by Nathaniel R
Lebanon's Capernam might be our earliest and most solid bet for submission/nomination
Just an FYI that the charts are now under construction for the Foreign Film Oscar submissions. We won't have the avalanche of "official" submission news until September but we can definitely begin to speculate over the summer, post-Cannes as to which films each country will submit.
Predictions - Stats / Blindfolded Early Predictions
Chart One - Afghanistan to Ethiopia
Chart Two - Finland to Mozambique
Chart Three - The Netherlands to Vietnam
Though it's tempting to assume that hits from Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto will automatically be their country's submission, that isn't always the case...
Some countries have robust film industries and submit each and every year where others only submit infrequently. It's tough to know what will happen, especially since filmmakers relationships to their own country or country's selection committees are sometimes fraught.
The first winner of the competitive Foreign Film category was La StradaTo qualify for submission this year a film must be in a non-English language (anything more than 50% in English is ineligible) and it must be released in its home country between October 1st, 2017 and September 30th, 2018. Films from the United States made in non-English languages (there have been a few) are not eligible. Each country invited can only submit one film. Oscar invites well over 100 countries and last year a record 92 submitted
In 1956, the first year of the official category, just 8 countries submitted: Denmark (Qivitoq), France (Gervaise), Italy (La Strada - the eventual winner), Japan (The Burmese Harp), The Philippines (Anak Dalita), Spain (Afternoon of the Bulls), Sweden (The Staffan Stolle Story), and West Germany (The Captain of Köpenick). Most of those countries went on to be frequent nominees but sadly The Phillipines has yet to be nominated. They have been submitting annually, without fail, since 1995. Last year a record 92 countries submitted films.
If you have hints or news about your country's cinema, do share it or send us tips.