5 more countries name their Oscar submissions

Friday

Sep092022

Friday, September 9, 2022 at 6:00PM

by Nathaniel R

Real life multi-lingual Portuguese twins play mute twins in Albania's entry

Chart update time yet again. We have five more entries for Best International Feature Film from Algeria, Hungary, Slovenia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only one of the submitted directors has been sent to the Oscars before so it's mostly young(ish) filmmakers in this block of contenders...

🇦🇱 A CUP OF COFFEE AND NEW SHOES ON (Gentian Koçi)
ALBANIA (nothing yet from 15 submissions)

In this film deaf and mute twin brothers (pictured above) learn that they will be going blind. The film stars Portugeuse twins Edgar and Rafael Morais who speak four languages fluently (and live in Los Angeles) though their characters don't speak in this Albanian movie. Gentian Koçi was previously selected by Albania for his film Daybreak (2017).

🇭🇺 BLOCKADE (Adam Toser)
HUNGARY (10 nominations, 2 wins, and 2 additional finalists from 58 submissions)

A political drama set in 1990 about a newly elected Prime Minister and a taxi driver blockade that stops the city. It hasn't yet premiered anywhere but is due to open in Hungary next month.

🇸🇮 ORCHESTRA (Matevz Luzar)
SLOVENIA (nothing yet from 26 submissions)

A black and white comedy about a small town orchestra going on tour in Austria and escaping their regular lives. It's had a low profile internationally so far aside from a spot at the Beijing festival.

🇹🇳 UNDER THE FIG TREES (Erige Sehiri)
TUNISIA (1 nomination from 9 submissions)

A romantic drama about young women and men working the summer harvest. It premiered in the Directors Fortnight section at Cannes. Sehiri is a director/producer who has previously made documentary features.

🇺🇦 KLONDIKE (Maryna Er Gorbach)
UKRAINE (nothing yet from 15 submissions)

A drama about a husband and wife living on the border of Ukraine and Russia who become entangled in a aircrash catatostrophe in 2014. Though Ukraine hasn't yet scored with Oscar voters, the country has a lot of goodwill at the moment so if they submit a film with the goods, they could well get attention. And it looks like they have; Klondike won the directing prize for World Cinema at Sundance and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Berlinale among other festival prizes so it's been making waves on the circuit. Could be a sleeper contender.

Updated Oscar Charts

Pg 1 - Albania through Greece - 8 official entries and 3 finalist lists
Pg 2 - Haiti through Norway - 4 official entries and 1 finalist list
Pg 3 - Palestine through Vietnam - 9 official entries and 5 finalist lists
Current Predictions