International Oscar Update: A Boat Load of Official Contenders

by Nathaniel R

We have now reached the season where it's hard to keep up with all the updates and it will keep on being this way throughout September. Nevertheless I'm at least keeping the submission charts up to date. At this writing twenty-five countries have selected their official contender for Best International Feature Film. We can safely expect another 60 or so countries to submit by the deadline of October 1. In terms of participation the category peaked at 97 contenders back in 2020 and has been dipping slightly since and has returned to 2010 numbers (the high 80s).

After the jump the "new" announcements since our last update are in bold and I've highlighted one new contender per chart for fun...

CHART 1 Austria through Germany

• Austria - Peacock (previously shared)
• Belgium - Young Mother's Home
• Bulgaria - Tarika (previously shared)
• Canada - The Things You Kill
• Chile - Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (reviewed at Cannes)
• Czech Repubic - I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (previously shared)
• Dominican Republic - Pepe (reviewed at NYFF last year)
• Germany - Sound of Falling (reviewed at Cannes)

Remember that narrative/doc hybrid metaphor-laden hippo movie Pepe that premiered at Berlinale back in February 2024, winning Best Director ? It must have been released in its home country after October 1 of 2024 in order to qualify for this honor. It's hard to imagine Oscar voters going for it given its experimental audiacious nature but what a cool submission choice from Dominican Republic. 

The two true Oscar powerhouse countries on this first chart that have yet to announce are Denmark (though we know their finalists) and France. Both countries regularly make the finals and nominee lists. We also don't yet know what Brazil, last year's winner, will submit though everyone suspects Cannes favourite The Secret Agent. 

CHART 2 - Iceland through Norway

DOG OF GOD - Latvia's Oscar submission

• Iceland - The Love That Remains
• Ireland - Sanatorium (previously discusssed)
• Japan - Kokuho (in our original prediction list)
• Jordan - All That's Left of You
• Latvia - Dog of God
• Norway - Sentimental Value (Cannes review)

Latvia nabbed their first nomination in this category and their first Oscar win (albeit in a separate category) with the brilliant animated feature Flow last season. I love Flow so much that I feel the need to reshare my top ten list again at this link. They were alphabetized but Flow was actually my top picture. As follow up they've selected another animated film that will surely stand out from the crowd for its content and medium (though we can't speak for its quality just yet, sight unseen). They've gone with Dog of God which is a rotoscoped feature about a 17th century witch trial.

Sentimental Value is expected to be an Oscar player (and you might recall we predicted it all over the place in our first predictions of the year - maybe we went overboard!). The big Oscar player on this chart that has yet to announce is Italy. Italy battled France throughout the 20th century to be the dominant "foreign" player at the Oscars. They've both been less dominant for the past 25 years but you should never count them out given how often they make the finals, even in years when they miss the nomination. 

CHART 3 - Palestine through Ukraine 

• Palestine - Palestine '36 (previously shared)
• Papua New Guinea - Papa Buka FIRST SUBMISSION!
• Philippines - Magellan (cool possible trivia factor that they've submitted it) 
• South Korea - No Other Choice (***just reviewed!  and their options discussed)
• Sweden - Eagles of the Republic (previously discussed) 
• Switzerland - Late Shift (previously shared)
• Taiwan - Left Handed Girl
• Thailand - A Useful Ghost (previously discussed) 
• Tunisia -The Voice of Hind Rajab
• Turkey - One of These Days When Hemme Dies (previously shared)
• Ukraine - 2000 Meters to Andriivka

It's always fun to hear about a first submission ever. Papua New Guinea, which is the eastern half of an island in Oceania, became an independent Commonwealth country 50 years ago. They have a population of around 12 million but over 800 languages are spoken given the heteregenous populace! They've submitted a film called Papa Buka.  Papa Buka, the titular character, is a guide who is taking two others through remote villages on the island to document memories of World War II and battles with Japan.

On this third and final chart the big dogs (in terms of Oscar history) that haven't yet announced are Poland and Spain (which has 23 films to choose from).