Deadline is up for Oscar's Best International Film submissions

by Nathaniel R

KINGS OF THE WORLD, Colombia's Oscar submission

Today, October 3rd, is the deadline for participating countries to get their Oscar submissions in for the Best International Feature Film category. We've mentioned before that the Academy (wrongly) chucked their longstanding tradition of publicly announcing the entire longlist for Best International Feature Film last season... if they don't release it again this year we might not know for certain for a few days or even a few weeks what is exactly on the list they're considering in the first round of voting. They'll narrow the list down to 15 films on December 21st, 2022 and then announce the actual nominations on January 24th, 2023.  As of now we know of 81 countries that announced plans to submit a particular film and you can read about all of them on the charts. 

If you've been playing along here with each article a shorter list of the last six films to be announced is after the jump...

🇨🇴 THE KINGS OF THE WORLD
Colombia (1 nomination and 1 additional finalist from 31 submissions)

This drama follows five your marginalized men making their way in the world.  It was a hit at the San Sebastian film festival.

🇱🇧 MEMORY BOX
Lebanon (2 nominations from 18 submissions)

This one is from the directing duo of Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (who have worked together since the very beginning of their careers). It's about three women connecting by a box full of audiotapes and photographs.

🇵🇰 JOYLAND
Pakistan (no results yet from 11 submissions)

In something of a surprise, Pakistan has submitted this years Queer Palm winner from Cannes. It's about a man who joins a dance theatre troupe and falls for its trans star. Though Pakistan is not a gay-friendly country, as of 2018 the "T" in LGBTQ was granted legal protections by Parliament... so perhaps in the future the things will get easier for the other letters of the rainbow.

🇵🇭 ON THE JOB 2: THE MISSING 8
Philippines (no results yet from 33 submissions)

The Philippines didn't submit last year which was a surprise after years of faithful submissions. This year they've opted for the film that took the Volpi Cup for Best Actor last year at Venice.  The drama is about the corruption of the Duterte regime. Will its sequel-ness or its epic length be a problem for voters? It's the longest film submitted at three and a half hours.

🇸🇳 XALÉ
Senegal (2 finalists from 4 submissions)

Senegal only began subitting in 2017 but they've been warmly received thus far. Both Felicite (2017) and the hypnotic masterful Atlantics (2019) made the finals so Senegalese cinema has some momentum for a nomination if they keep making strong submission choices. Their latest entry is about a teenage girl whose grandmother dies.

🇻🇳 578 MAGNUM 
Vietnam (1 nomination from 19 submissions) 

They've chosen an action revenge film about a truck driver seeking the man who hurt his daughter. French Vietnamese actor Alexandre Nguyen (Painted Beauty, To the North) headlines. 

Comments

[Travis C]

Lebanon, REALLY? I personally found MEMORY BOX to be cliched and badly written to the point of complete unengagement with the characters and story.

[marco70ve]

@Nathaniel: The Academy actually did release the longlist of eligible movies for the International Film category, it can still be found here:
https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/94aa-international-feature-eligibility-list.pdf

[Lucky]

Beware of Argentina, 1985. I got a feeling.

[Kris]

I love it - Thailand just submitted "One for the road"... That was my favourite movie in Sundance 2021 :) (although quite a big part of it was in English too)
So far I've seen 10 films of the 83 submitted and I hope at least 3 of these will enter the 15:
1. Thailand
2. South Korea
3. Bolivia
(4th and 5th are Finland and Estonia... but as these are my home turfs, I might be biased :))

My guess at the moment (regarding the festival wins and positive buzz from people who have seen these+my personal 3 @the moment) for the 15 are:
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, Germany, Iran, Morocco, Mexico, Norway (they sent the most expensive movie ever made in that country so far), Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Thailand)

(Lebanon indeed made a weird choice - not a good movie... didn't like much the choices from Ukraine, Latvia and Brazil either)

[NATHANIEL R]

marco -- yes, but they released it very late in the season... not the traditional time when the movies could get press for being on the list. They announced it so late that it felt like a few minutes later the movies were all eliminated for the top 15.

[eefdd cvccc]

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