Pt 1 International Feature Oscar Race: Stats, Trivia, Genres

by Nathaniel R

You can watch THE LAST DANCE (Hong Kong's Oscar Submission) right now!

Aside from the actress categories and eye candy crafts, longtime readers know that the awards season race I obsess over most is Best International Feature Film. This desire to jump around the Globe, sampling cinematic cuisines, was born early in me, thanks to arthouse theaters in Detroit Michigan where I grew up and a French teacher in High School who dragged the class to French movies downtown. Later international cinema programs in university and the Oscars themselves kept building the interest in what happens outside of Hollywood. The amount of subtitled features I manage to catch varies wildly from year to year but the desire to follow it all, has always been there.

We're just a few weeks away from the moment when Oscar voters narrow this race way down to 15 films so herewith 3 trivia laden posts on stats, trivia, genre, directors, and movie stars that you'll find this season in the Best International Feature Film Submission List. Let's start the trivia, stats, and anedcotes with the films that you can see right now followed by notes about genre, running time, and linguistics... 

THE CONTENDERS YOU CAN WATCH RIGHT NOW

About 40% of the 86 officially competing films have US distribution deals. Unfortunately only 15 of them are available to moviegoers before the shortlists are announced. Here are the titles that you'll theoretically be able to see before Oscar night ...at least if you live in a major film market.

AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW 

Joachim Trier is back with "SENTIMENTAL VALUE" Norway's Oscar submission © Neon

• The Last Dance (Hong Kong) - rent on Apple TV+
• Pepe (Dominican Republic) - streaming on MUBI
• It Was Just an Accident (France) - in theaters from NEON
• Sentimental Value (Norway) - in theaters from NEON 
• I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (Czech Republic) in theaters from Grasshopper Films
• Sirat (Spain) -One Week Qualifier ends soon (NEON)
• The Things You Kill (Canada) - just opened (Cineverse)
• Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan) - just opened in theaters (...on Netflix Nov 28)
• Kokuho (Japan) - -One Week Qualifier ends soon (Gkids)
  
  
  In Betweeners: Dead to Rights (China), Homebound (India), Anjila (Nepal), and 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Ukraine) supposedly already had blink and you'll miss 'em US theatrical releases (before we knew they were submissions). Sadly they haven't been made available to buy or rent yet. Presumably they're somewhere in that no man's land between theatrical / digital. 

IN THEATERS OR STREAMING BEFORE THE FINALIST LIST IS ANNOUNCED...

• The Secret Agent (Brazil) - November 26th in theaters (NEON)
• All That's Left of You (Jordan) - November 28th in theaters (Watermelon Pictures)
• Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan) - November 28th streaming on Netflix
• Tale of the Silyan (North Marcedonia) - November 28th in theaters
• Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia) -December 5th in theaters (Kino Lorber)
• The President's Cake (Iraq) - December 12th One Week Qualifier (SPC)

SCHEDULED FOR AFTER THE CONTENDER'S LIST SHRINKS...

This release tactic assumes publicity from Oscar buzz. It's a risky move that distributors like a lot but we've all been through the disappointment of being excited for films that were suddenly discarded by their distributors or delayed for months if the Academy passed. 

• The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) - December 17 in theaters (Willa)
• No Other Choice  (South Korea) - December 25th in theaters (NEON)
• The Love That Remains (Iceland) - January 30th in theaters (Janus Films)
• Calle Malaga (Morocco) - February 6th in theaters 

• Release Details Not Yet Announced:  Belen (Argentina) - Amazon Prime,  Beloved Tropic (Panama) - Watermelon Pictures, Black Red Yellow (Kyrgyrzstan) - MUBI, Eagles of the Republic (Sweden) - Janus Films, Late Shift (Switzerland) - Music Box Films, Magellan (Philippines) - Janus Films, Orphan (Hungary) - Watermelon Pictures & Visibility Films, Palestine '36 (Palestine) - Watermelon Pictures, A Poet (Colombia) - 1-2 Special (new distributor founded earlier this year) , Sanatorium (Ireland) - Watermelon Pictures & VIsibiity Films, Sound of Falling (Germany) - MUBI, and We Shall Not Be Moved (Mexico) - MUBI

Above all else we hope that if a film is lucky enough to be nominated it actually is released in theaters during awards season. Actual nominees that inexplicably open AFTER their season wraps nearly always flop-- for proof see the bottom of this list of the box office earnings of this last decade's International Feature Film nominees) -- and yet this is still happens.

MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA 

FIRST TIME SUBMISSION! 

"DISCO AFRIKA" is a first-ever submission for the country of Madagascar

• Disco Afrika marks the first ever submission from Madagascar.  It's a coming of age movie of a kind about a post-adolescent sapphire miner returning to his native village. 

We thought we'd be able to list Papa New Guinea here but for whatever reason, it's announced submission Papa Buka was not on the Academy's list.  

MOST MULTILINGUAL

PAVANE FOR AN INFANT is multilingual

Excluding the documentary entries which ofter have talking heads in four or more languages, these four movies are the most fluent in multiple tongues...

• Tower of Strength (Montenegro) - This drama about a man harboring a fugitive has dialogue in five languages: Montenegrin, Albanian, Croatian, Serbian, and German.
  
  
• Pavane for an Infant (Malaysia) - This drama about women working at a controversial "baby hatch" (where abortions are performed) is also in five languages: Malay, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Min Nan. 

• Breathing Underwater (Luxembourg) - A women's shelter drama with four languages spoken: French, Spanish, Italian, and Luxembourgish
  
  
• Magellan  (Philippines) - The biographical picture about the Spanish explorer (played by category regular Gael Garcia Bernal who originally hails from Mexico) has dialogue in four different language: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Tagalog. 

Quite a few of the other movies are bi (or tri) lingual. It's especially fun when the languages play an important plot role in the movie.

MOST COMMONLY SPOKEN LANGUAGES AMONG THE SUBMISSION TITLES  

1. SPANISH -Spoken in 16 of the films
   (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela)
2. ARABIC- Spoken in 9 films
   (the submissions from: Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and Tunisia)
3. GERMAN - Spoken in 7  films
   (Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dominican Republic, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Switzerland)
4. FRENCH - Spoken in 6 films
   (Belgium, Haiti, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Philippines, and Spain) 

SHORTEST CONTENDERS
(< 90 minutes) 

"DON'T YOU LET ME GO" is selling itself as a magical movie about friendship

1. Dont You Let Me Go (Uruguay) - 71 minutes
2. Sun Never Again (Serbia) - 72 minutes
3. My Armenian Phantoms (Armenia) - 75 minutes [doc]
4. Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny (Bosnia & Herzegovina) - 76 minutes [doc]
5. Tale of the Silyan (North Macedonia) - 80 minutes [doc]
6. Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story (Madagascar) - 81 minutes
7. One of These Days When Hemme Dies (Turkey) - 83 minutes
8. Tarika (Bulgaria) - 86 minutes
9. The Altar Boy, The Priest, and The Gardener (Costa Rica) - 87 minutes [doc]
10. [TIE] 100 Litres of Gold (Finland) and The Southern House (Bolivia)  88 minutes each
11. [TIE] The Heart is a Muscle (South Africa), Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia) and The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) - 89 minutes each

LONGEST CONTENDERS
(> 2 hours) 

KOKUHO, Japan's submission, stars Ken Watanabe [image via Aniplex, Inc]

1. Kokuho (Japan) - 175 minutes
2. Magellan (Philippines) - 160 minutes
3. The Secret Agent (Brazil) - 158 minutes
4. Kinra (Peru) - 157 minutes
5. Sound of Falling (Germany) -149 minutes
6. Anjlia (Nepal) - 146 minutes
7. All That's Left of You (Jordan) - 145 minutes
8. No Other Choice (South Korea) - 139 minutes each
9. Silent City Driver  (Mongolia) - 137 minutes
10. Dead to Rights (China) - 137 minutes
11. Sentimental Value (Norway) - 135 minutes
12. Orphan (Hungary) - 132 minutes
13. Eagles of the Repubic (Sweden) - 129 minutes
14. The Last Dance (Hong Kong) - 127 minutes (but there is also a 140 minute version and we're not sure which version was submitted to the Academy)
15. [TIE] Banzo (Portugal) and Franz (Poland) 127 minutes each
16. [TIE] Familia (Italy) and Red Rain (Vietnam) - 124 minutes
17. [TIE] Homebound (India) and Pepe (Dominic Republic) - 122 minutes

The "short" group (16% of the movies) is unfortunately smaller than the "long" butt-numbing group  (23%) but 61% of the titles are right in the standard movie length of 1½ to 2 hours. 

GENRES & FORMS

DOG OF GOD is Latvia's unusual submission

The bulk of submitted films each and every year are traditional dramas or variations thereofs (dramedies, biopics, true stories, war films, relationship films, etc...). They're usually thematically heavy, too, since that's what naturally rises to the top. The belief that dramas are automatically more deserving than 'lighter' fare is a bias shared by nearly all awards organizations so it's unfair to pretend (as people do every time a genre or comedy is shunned) that Oscar voters are the only artistically conservative voters... at least conservative in this particular thematic way. The following films bring some needed variety to the submission mix this season either through their form or by leaning into more heightened and thus less automatically-respected genres.

ANIMATED FEATURES 
(1% of the list) 

• Dog of God (Latvia) 

There is often one animated submission in the competition but rarely much more than that. Interestingly two of the only three animated features ever nominated in this category doubled as documentaries: Waltz with Bashir (2008) and Flee (2021). The first and only non-documentary animated film nominated in this category was Latvia's awesome cat-led post-humanity fantasy Flow (2024) last season. It had to settle for winning Best Animated Feature though in my heart it was also totally Best Picture worthy. Dog of God is hoping to follow in Flow's footsteps and become Latvia's second nominee but it's an uphill battle given its subject matter, form, AND genre.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES 
(14% of the list - a record smashing high) 

could '"THE TALE OF THE SILYAN" follow in "Honeyland"'s footsteps?

• 2000 Meters to Andriivka  (Ukraine) war
• The Altar Boy, The Priest, and the Gardener (Costa Rica) sexual abuse, legal case history
• Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny (Boznia & Herzegovina)
• Fiume O Morte (Croatia) Croatian history, reenactments
• I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (Czech Republic) biographical portrait, photography, LGBTQ
• Mr Nobody Against Putin (Denmark) politics, education, media propaganda, dictatorship
• My Armenian Phantoms (Armenia) personal memoir, cinematic history
• Sanatorium (Ireland) healthcare, Russian war on Ukraine
• The Tale of the Silyan (North Macedonia) folklore, animal life, farming
• Under the Flags, the Sun (Paraguay) political history, media propaganda, dictatorship
• Walls - Akinni Inuk (Greenland) biographical portrait, crime, legal case history
• The Wolves Always Come at Night (Australia) climate change, rural to urban migration

At 12 titles this is an all time record high for documentary submissions... and by a large margin, too. The most I believe we've had previously in a single year was 7 submissions (2021). Waltz With Bashir (2008) was the first documentary nominated in this category and then suddenly there were three in a row Honeyland (2019), Collective (2020), and Flee (2021). No documentary has been nominated in this category since Flee, but at least one doc has made the finals in each of those subsequent years. All of this is a major change in submission AND voting habits in the past 10 years. I personally don't particularly love it since Docs have their own category (double dipping does not appeal to my spreading the wealth dreams). But, that said, the documentary form is more central to some country's cinematic ecosystems so... why not? Some cinephiles are happy about this development. 

HEAVY ON THE GENRE, PLEASE  
(11.6% of the list) 

Ecuador chose the folk horror film CHUZALONGO

• 100 Litres of Gold  (Finland) - alcoholic comedy
• Arcadia  (Greece) - erotic thriller / fantasy drama 
• Chuzalongo (Ecuador) - folk horror
• Disco Afrika (Madagascar) - supernatural elements
• Dog of God (Latvia) - supernatural horror comedy
• Don't You Let Me Go (Uruguay) - fantasy drama (involves time travel)
• No Other Choice (South Korea) - socioeconomic thriller
• Sore: Wife from the Future (Indonesia) - fantasy
• Stranger Eyes (Singapore) - psychological thriller
• Tarika (Bulgaria) - supernatural elements

This particularly Oscar category is even more resistant to genre films than Best Picture or the Best Acting categories tend to be. Or maybe they're only resistant because most countries resist sending genre films to compete?  There have been a few examples of fantasies, musicals, thrillers, and comedies (as well as a single horror film) sneaking an Oscar nod in this category but they're closer to novelties than the norm. Will this change in years to come? We've already seen signs that awards bodies (including Oscar) are becoming more comfortable with "B" genres (for lack of a better word) but that doesn't make any non traditional drama a safe bet. 

Unfortunately 2025 is rough in terms of genre-variety within the films submitted by their home countries. Of the six films that were "announced" but rejected by the Academy for some reason, HALF were genre films: Thailand's supernatural multigenre critical favourite A Useful Ghost, and horror/thrillers from Cambodia (Tenemenet) and Kazaksthan (Cadet). Their absence narrows the artistic range of this year's competition list.

LGBTQ+ CONTENDERS 
(3.5% of the list)

MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO

• I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (Czech Republic)
  A documentary which focuses on a photographer whose claim to fame was portraits of the underground queer community in Czechoslovokia
• Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia)
  A drama about teenagers in an all girls school and their sexual awakenings
• The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Chile)
  A drama involving drag queens, trans women, and closeted miners in during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

I'm sad to report that there are less queer films present this year than usual -- not that there is ever an abundance! It's possible queer characters exist in one or two of the other films but these three are the only ones we know of (at this writing) that would easily qualify as LGBTQ+ cinema. This is another instance where the unexpected absence of Thailand's submission hurts the variety of the list!

For historical context, it's frustrating to note that queer cinema is rarely nominated. Only two have ever won; interestingly enough both winners were in the Spanish language and both represented the "T" in LGBTQ+ cinema: Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother (1999) which brought Spain its third of four total wins in Best International Feature and Sebastian Lelio's A Fantastic Woman (2017) which brought Chile its first and only win to date in the category. If Emilia Perez (2024) hadn't suffered enormous last minute backlash last season, France's spanish-language musical would have possibly made this trivia note a strange three-for-three situation.

Despite their historic resistance to queer cinema, there is some evidence that the Academy is warming up to films that dare to bypass heteronormativity. In the past five years we've had three more gay or queer-themed nominees in the International category: Pain & Glory (2019), Flee (2021), and Close (2023). It's also become common for at least one homosexually inclined film to make the finalist list (indicating they were within striking distance of a nomination). Examples in the past ten years are Ireland's Cuba-set drag queen drama Viva (2015), Canada's family melodrama It's Only the End of the World (2016), South Africa's male ritual drama The Wound (2017), Czech Republic's biopic Charlatan (2020), France's lesbian drama Two of Us (2020),  Austria's prison-set drama Great Freedom (2021), Pakistan's shoulda been a nominee trans romance Joyland (2023), and in last season's finalist list two implied lesbians among the ensembles of Italy's Vermiglio and India's Santosh.

WHAT WENT WRONG ???

Thailand's "A USEFUL GHOST"... why isn't it on the list?

Six titles were announced as submissions during the fall which are not on the Academy's screening list. Either the country didn't submit them at the last minute or they were disqualified. Those films were Cambodia's horror thriller Tenement (which is available now on VOD), Kazakhstan's horror thriller Cadet, Papa New Guinea's first submission Papa Buka, Senegal's drama Demba (a shame since Senegal has been building momentum towards a first nomination with three finalists in quick succession), Tajikistan's Black Rabbit White Rabbit, and Thailand's genre-busting critically acclaimed oddity A Useful Ghost. 

COUNTRIES THAT DID NOT  SUBMIT THIS YEAR...

The Academy invites over 100 countries to submit but not all of them do it annually. The following countries who sometimes submit skipped the competition this year: Aghanistan, Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba, Guatemala, Kenya, Kosovo, Malta, Moldova, Nambia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. (Russia is also absent but that once formidable participating country has refused to participate since 2022 when they invaded Ukraine angering the rest of the world.) 

THE FULL SUBMISSION LIST (AND OUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE FINALISTS)

Okay that's it for the part one of the trivia. In part two we'll talk directors and actors. 

Comments

[Kris]

Just for the record, if I remember correctly (between my snorings while watching it) - there was gay sex in "Magellan" (2 guys in his crew). But it is one of the really bad films in this year's competition (I've watched 24 so far and only Netherlands' is even worse).
Way too long and sooooo boring. Bernal does not rescue it.

[Cláudio Alves]

Kris is right about the gay sex in MAGELLAN. Not about the film being bad. It's actually my #1 film of 2025. Though, as someone who doesn't tend to love slow cinema, I'm not sure you'd be into it, Nat.