International Submission List Updates

by Nathaniel R

The submission list for Oscar's Best International Feature Film race is now 80 films long. What films will still pop up that we weren't warned about ahead of time? While the deadline to submit is over, there are usually 5-15 titles that are on the official list that weren't advertised ahead of time. Some countries that almost always submit that we haven't heard a peep about are Algeria, China, Lebanon, and Thailand. Nevertheless since I took a week off to vacation in Italy, seven more films were announced...

Argentina chose The Delinquents a three hour dramedy about two bank robbers. The writer/director Rodrigo Moreno had a feature debut critical sensation in 2006 with a film called El Custodio. 

I HAVE ELECTRIC DREAMS

Costa Rica submitted I Have Electric Dreams, a drama about a teenage girl who wants to live with her father instead of her mother and sister. The film is available online in the US. 

Ireland, which had their first nomination last year with The Quiet Girl, selected a documentary called In the Shadow of Beirut about two impoverished neighborhoods in Lebanon.

Malaysia opted for a horror movie called Tiger Stripes which is about an 11 year girl experiencing physical changes.

Mongolia made if official with the festival hit City of Wind, reviewed right here from both Venice and TIFF, as everyone expected.

Philippines surprised by choosing an animated film The Missing about an alien and a mouthless boy.

and finally...

BANEL & ADAMA

Senegal went with Banel & Adama, a drama about a young couple whose village disapproves of their love. Senegal has yet to be nominated but they've only been submitting since 2017 and they've already had two very well-received finalists, Felicite and Atlantique, so it feels like only a matter of time.  

UPDATED CHARTS

Comments

[Anthony Tranchina]

Thailand announced dramedy “Not Friends” early this morning, which brings the list to 82.

We probably have all 15 finalists declared at this point…But it will be interesting to see what Algeria (The Last Queen?), China (Shadowless Tower? one of Zhang Yimou’s two new eligible films?) and Lebanon (Dirty Difficult Dangerous? ) will send.

I’ve heard rumors that Namibia will debut this year and that Greenland re-convened a committee for the first time in a decade… I expect they’ll both be on the final list along with Azerbaijan, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic and Saudi Arabia…. And maybe one of the following: Cambodia, Pakistan and South Africa

With four countries announcing that they will sit out this year, it’s unlikely we’ll have a new record.

[Kris]

So far, having seen 14 prefinalists, the only real condenders out of these are Romania “Do not expect too much of the end of the world”- a weird film, but positively so, and taking us to the filmmaking world, Sundance best international doc director winner - Estonia “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” and the sad, happy, warm, but some even horrifying life stories of women told in sauna steam is a worthy statue to womenhood in a film form, Australia’s immigrant+middle east cultural male dominance social drama “Shayda” goes straight to your heart and there’s something about South Korea’s earthquake aftermath drama that cuts to the nerve, although that one may be too much for the Academy.

I expect quite many of the final 5 coming from the “big European movie countries” like:
UK
Germany
France
Spain
Denmark
Since these seem to have good reviews from everybody.

Haven’t seen yet myself, but heard a lot of good words about this year’s films from Finland, Japan, Ukraine and Chile.

(I think some of the usual suspects, of the ones that I have seen, like the Netherlands, Sweden, Mexico and Brazil are not in the game this time and not getting even amongst 15 half-finalists this year, at least I think they shouldn’t)