NEON out there trying to hog the entire Best International Feature Film category!
Friday, September 19, 2025 at 6:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Best International Feature, Best International Film, It Was Just an Accident, NEON, Oscars (25), Sirât, The Secret Agent, release dates

by Nathaniel R

Dear reader, every time I've attempted to write anything regarding the Best International Feature Film race, another film was announced. Can't keep up! We're now up to 64 official submissions (the number is likely to top out in the 80s so 20ish films to go) with dozens of announcements since we last tried to get something on the main page. The big news is that France chose Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident (We wonder what the average Frenchmen makes of two films in a row that aren't in French being submitted!), Spain chose Sirat by Oliver Laxe, and Brazil made it official with The Secret Agent by Aquarius / Bacarau director Kleber Mendoca Filho. All three films were sensations at Cannes and all three will be distributed by NEON in the US over the next two months.  NEON is poised to utterly dominate conversations around this Oscar race since they now have five super-buzzy contenders for this category including previously announced titles from major auteurs: Norway's Joachim Trier is back with Sentimental Value and South Korea's Park Chan-wook is in the house with No Other Choice. 

At this writing (Friday, Sept 19th, around 3:00 pm) 26 of the 62 films have secured distributions so more on when they're arriving after the jump...

In theory NEON could literally shut all other distributors out of the category this time around. Not that voters would ever cooperate and choose only one distributor's films. I can't recall a year where a distributor had more than 40% of the list but perhaps I'm forgetting an anomaly year. Still we absolutely love that NEON is releasing all of them within the calendar year (even if Sirat got the short-end of the stick with a one week release) instead of waiting around for a February bow in the hopes that they might get nominated. That's a tactic we are on the record as despising, if mostly because those releases are in danger of mysteriously dematerializing if the Oscar lottery isn't won. Films deserve to be seen, damnit! 

OKAY, THE LIST

ALREADY RELEASED

COMING SOON TO U.S. THEATERS...
(ALL OF WHICH WE'VE REVIEWED)

In other words these nine films will be eligible in all categories, not just International Feature Film, if they do the necessary paperwork. Given recent Oscar trends at least two or three subtitled pictures will show up in multiple categories outside of their 'designated' home.

Still waiting on a release date but they have US distributors behind them.

Political Complications to Release
Both Israel's entry THE SEA and Tunisia's entry THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB are thought to be struggling finding distributors due to the current heated politics around Israel's war on Palestine. Hind Rajab addresses the genocide directly via a tragic true story so US distributors are rumored to be steering clear. The situation for the The Sea is more complex since it's centered on a Palestinian boy but is representing Israel. But nuances like that are always lost in official or unofficial boycotts of art. So the Sea will get caught up in whatever anti-Israel boycott film festivals or distributors participate in while at the same time it's under attack by the Israeli government;  Israel's Culture Minister has cut funding to the Ophir Awards (Israel's Oscar equivalent) after they handed The Sea the top prize earlier this week (automatically making it the Oscar submission), claiming that it's Pro-Palestinian and  "spits on the heroic Israeli soldiers". I hate the divisiveness of the modern world but this is one reason why I find boycotts of whole countries disturbing. It doesn't reflect the reality that countries have many citizens who are never monolothic in their beliefs or actions or politics --and if you boycott artists because of where they're from you're also potentially boycotting voices of dissent towards whatever outrageous government actions caused the boycott in the first place. 

Some hot tickets that haven't been picked up for the US, Why?

Morocco's CALLE MALAGA
Poland's FRANZ
Netherlands REEDLANDS

All three are either selling well to other territories or thought to have solid prospects if they're picked up by the right distributor in the US... but so far no word. 

It's always confusing when you have a title that has been used before...
Online sources (Letterboxd, Just Watch, Google, etcetera) say that the Georgian submission PANOPTICON is available to rent in the US but if you click over from a link, you'll find that you're taken to an older english language film with no relation to this film other than the title. So, be careful with your dollars! You can't always trust what you read online (obviously). MOTHERLAND from Peru also has misleading info online because there have been a lot of films with that title. Google says it's currently in theatrical release AND available on demand but I personally can't find it; JustWatch contradicts them and says it is not available for rental online. So far there's no word on a US release for Slovakia's FATHER (though it looks like a good film!) but even if it does get a release will people be able to find it without being directed to more famous films of the same or similar names? 

UPDATED OSCAR CHARTS

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.