Since the last round up three more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 37.
Guatemala's La Llorona, from the director of Ixcanul
A few trivia notes regarding these latest submissions. First, Maria Bakalova who is currently enjoying an instant critical/populist splash as the co-star of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is in the ensemble of Bulgaria's dramedic submission The Father. That film is not to be confused with the English-language Anthony Hopkins Oscar hopeful The Father or the Serbian film Father (which we loved at CIFF this fall). Too many movies named Father!
Meanwhile, Guatemala has submitted the newish filmmaker Jayro Bustamante again, who made a festival splash with his debut Ixcanul (2015). His new film is La Llorona (2020)... yes, another film with a title that could easily get it confused with other contemporary offerings like Curse of La Llorona (2019) or Legend of La Llorona (2020). More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd