by Nathaniel R
It's official. Finally. Two truly excellent Scandinavian films are joining the Oscar competition. Norway's Cannes sensation Worst Person in the World, a romantic dramedy from the great Joachim Trier (Reprise, Oslo August 31st, Thelma), and the animated documentary Flee about a gay Afghan refugee who made his home in Denmark are now officially in the hunt for Oscar glory. The Best International Feature Film category is always hugely competitive and the voting system is complex so there are never any "locks" but both films have a headstart at making the 15 wide finalist list; they're already widely seen and wildly acclaimed from their multiple festival outings. Flee will actually be gunning for multiple nominations as it could theoretically compete for the two other specialty feature categories: Documentary and Animated Feature.
Norway and Denmark aren't the only countries to announce over the past few days. After the jump twelve other Oscar hopefuls from around the Globe...
ARGENTINA
Argentina has chosen Natalie Meta's The Intruder as their Oscar hopeful. It's the story of a woman (Wild Tales' Erica Rivas) who begins to confuse reality and imagination after a traumatic event. It played in competition at Berlin. Argentina has been nominated once per decade since the 1970s with the exception of two in the 1980s.
AUSTRALIA
Australia has selected When Pomenegranates Howl as their representative film. It's about a kid who wants to become a movie star. It's a coproduction with Aghanistan, a country that has been submitting to the Oscars since 2002 though sporadically. The film is in Pashto and Persian.
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh, which has yet to be nominated, is sending Rehana which played in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this summer. It's about a professor who witnesses a sexual assault; she knows both the victim and the perpetator.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Bosnia, fresh off their second nomination last season for Quo Vadis Aida, will send the romantic drama The White Fortress by Igor Drljaca. It's about two teenagers in post-war Sarajevo.
COSTA RICA
They will send Clara Solo. Trivia note: This film was also a finalist for Sweden. Given that borders are ever shrinking when it comes to cinema and multinational productions are the norm, we're anxiously awaiting the chaos when two countries submit the same film (you know it's coming in the next ten years). What will Oscar do? Will they take sides and try to tell one country that it isn't that country enough... or will they have to give two Oscars, one per country, if said film wins?
HONG KONG
Hong Kong will send Jimmy Wan's Zero to Hero, a sports biopic of a gold medal winning paralympian.
INDIA
Just a couple days after we heard some of the finalists India has already selected their contender. It's going to be the Tamil language film Pebbles. It's about an alcoholic trying to get his wife back after he beats her with his young son in tow.
KENYA
They will be sending Mission to Rescue but unfortunately it doesn't have an IMDb or Letterbox page yet so we know virtually nothing about it though it looks like a war film.
LUXEMBOURG
They are sending the drama Lo Sto Bene by Donato Rotunno. It's about an old Italian man who has lived most of his life away from Italy and a young Italian woman and artist he meets abroad.
MONTENEGRO
They will send Ivan Bakrac's After the Winter about lifelong friends, now scattered across former Yugoslavia, who are trying to leave their youthful ways behind them.
PARAGUAY
Paraguay has selected the documentary Nothing but the Sun which features Mateo Sobode Chiqueno and his tape recordings of the Ayoreo people.
URUGUAY
They'll be sending The Broken Glass Theory a comedy about an insurance company employee visiting a small town where numerous cars are set on fire.
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