When will we start getting "official" submissions for the International Feature Film Oscar race?
Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 12:03PM 
The International Feature Film Oscar race has (mostly) reverted to its pre-COVID calendar for 2022. The past couple of years have been chaos with releases and deadline shifts but we're (almost) back to the usual which doesn't follow the calendar year overseas. "WHAT ON EARTH," you ask? "Oscar is always by calendar year!" Nope, not quite within this category...
LONG STORY
Generally speaking the "foreign" race has run fall-to-fall (October 1st- September 30th usually due to the time-consuming nature of submissions, paperwork, rounds of voting, etcetera) so in the past you would sometime see a movie that was a hit on the festival circuit in say, 2015, competing for the 2016 Oscars which were held in 2017. In other words some of the non-English language hits coming up at Venice, TIFF, NYFF, and AFI might not be eligible for the 95th Oscars (March 12th, 2023 honoring the 2022 film year) but might instead be submitted for the 96th Oscars (which will be held in 2024) depending on their release dates at home. That's getting into the fine details but the point is that though the 2021 race allowed countries to submit a film that opened at home anything within the calendar year, that isn't the case for 2022 as they are trying to shift back to the previous schedule. For the 95th Oscar submissons countries must choose their fighter (each country gets only one) by Monday October 3rd and it must have a one week released in that country by November 30th at the latest to qualify.
TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT
So, if, say, a film from France makes a huge splash at TIFF/Venice but isn't released until December in France, France won't be able to submit it this year. (For you deep-dive trivia enthusiast this fall-to-fall system is one of the reasons why France didn't submit Blue is the Warmest Color in its year since it opened in France (October 9th, 2013) after the Oscar release deadline (September 30th, 2013 that season) and a year later when it would have been technically eligible it was old news and they had moved on!
OSCAR CHARTS
We have a prediction chart up and we're currently working on creating the submission charts (which will be speculation at first) for this year's race. No country has yet announced their submission but since all submissions are due by October 3rd we should expect to be hearing some "official" titles real soon.
Reader Comments (5)
Both Australia and New Zealand usually have a limited group of films to choose from for their submissions (given English is the dominant language in both countries) but either could maybe try their luck with the Damon Herriman, Jemaine Clement comedy NUDE TUESDAY and see if The Academy accepts "gibberish" as a foreign language (they have accepted fake languages in the past). I know it did get a fortnight in cinemas in Australia (as that is where I saw it).
Expect Spain to decide in September or October, the earliest. And probably to choose wrong.
Nude Tuesday looks really good. I'm SO there.
NUDE TUESDAY would be an amusing litmus test for the category's new 'international' moniker. Gibberish isn't an official language of any country, of course, but the category is not longer foreign language...
That being said, I'd be surprised if Australia didn't choose YOU WON'T BE ALONE. it's already received in American release (via Focus!!) to rapturous reviews—although I can't see it appealing to the Academy unless the same people who voted for DOGTOOTH find themselves back on the committeee.
One quick correction. As a holdover from COVID, films do not need to be released in their host country this year, as long as they were released theatrically SOMEWHERE during the eligibility period. This rule- introduced during the pandemic in 2020- was meant to help films from countries where cinemas remained closed. But it has actually benefited films from countries where there may not be cinemas operating due to war or censorship, like last year’s “Gravediggers Wife” from Somalia.
“Nude Tuesday” for NZ?! What an interesting idea! The rules just say “a language other than English”….I hope they send it.