Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team.

This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms. 

Powered by Squarespace
DON'T MISS THIS

Follow TFE on Substackd 

COMMENTS

Oscar Takeaways
12 thoughts from the big night

 

Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe

 

 Index | Pic | Dir | Actress | Actor | Supp Actress |  Supp Actor | Foreign |Screenplays | Visual | Aural |Animation 

92nd Oscars. Oscar Contenders of 2019 (for the 2020 Ceremony) - For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes

 discuss on the blog

OFFICIAL SUBMISSION LIST - ACADEMY CONFIRMED

LAST CHART UPDATE NOV 24TH, 2019
Part Three: Pakistan through Vietnam
Current predictions | Afghanistan through Greece | Honduras through Norway 

Pakistan
never nominated
(first submitted in 1959, began regular submissions in 2013) 

LAAL KABOOTAR
Kamal Khan
102 minutes
Urdu 

No US distribution Yet

An action thriller about a man looking to escape the city and a woman looking for revenge. 

Palestine
2 nominations
(submitting since 2003)

IT MUST BE HEAVEN
Elia Suleiman
97 minutes
Arabic, French, and English

No US distribution Yet

The writer/director also stars in this travelogue of sorts where he makes observations. It received a special mention at Cannes 

Panama
never nominated
(submitting since 2014)

EVERYBODY CHANGES
Arturo Montenegro
Trailer 
100 minutes
Spanish 

No US distribution yet

A family drama in which the father plans to undero gender reassignment surgery

Peru
1 nomination (submitting since 1967)

RETABLO
Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio
95 min
Quechua

Spirit Nom (Foreign)

No US distribution Yet

A teenage boy who wants to follow in his father's footsteps discovers a secret about him that shatters his world. 

The Philippines
never nominated (submitting since 1956)

VERDICT
Raymund Ribay Gutierrez
126 minutes
Tagalog, Filipino, English

No US Distribution Yet

A legal drama about a domestic abuse survivor and her alcoholic husband.

Despite submitting in the very first foreign film year and 29 times in total, they're still waiting on a first nod. 

 

 

Poland
10 nominations | 1 win (submitting since 1963)

CORPUS CHRISTI
Jan Komasa
115 minutes
Polish 

No US distribution Yet

Drama about a juvenile delinquet with a spiritual awakening who decides to become a small-town parish. We've heard great things about the performance from the 27 year old leading man Bartosz Bielenia.

Portugal
never nominated* (submitting since 1980)

DOMAIN 
Tiago Guedes
166 minutes
Portuguese

No US distribution Yet

This is a nearly three hour epic about a wealthy landowning family in Portugal.

Portugal holds the unhappy distinction of having the most submissions without a nomination. They've submitted 35 times to date. 

Romania
never nominated (submitting since 1966)

THE WHISTLERS
Corneliu Porumboiu
97 minutes
Romanian, English, and Spanish 

US release in 2020 from Magnolia

A heist thriller starring Vlad Ivanov (Snowpiercer, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days) about a police offcier and a secret whistling language. Porumboiu was submitted previously for his comedy Police, Adjective. 

Russia
7 noms | 1 win*

BEANPOLE
Kantemir Balagov
130 minutes
Russian

No US Distribution Yet

A post WW II drama about two women struggling to rebuild their lives in the ruins of Leningrad.

 * If you include the Soviet Union stats its 16 nominations and 4 wins. Without those previoius films its 7 noms and 1 win since 1992

Saudi Arabia
never nominated (submitting since 2013)

THE PERFECT CANDIDATE
Haifaa Al Mansour

A young doctor surprises her community by running for office. They've never had a female candidate.

 

Senegal
never nominated (submitting since 2017)

ATLANTICS
Mati Diop
104 minutes
English, French, and Wolof

Senegal has only submitted once with Félicité (2017) but they're apparently on a role now with this Cannes sensation that will stream on Netflix eventually. It's a gorgeous haunting. 

Serbia
never nominated (submitting since 1994)

KING PETAR THE FIRST
Petar Ristovski
125 minutes
Serbian 

No US Distribution Yet

A biopic of a man who was banished from Serbia only to return and secure parliamentary democracy for the country. The same director also made an 11 episode TV version of this story though we dont know if this uses the same actors and footage.

Singapore
never nominated (first submitted in 1959, then in 2005 and frequently since)
 

A LAND IMAGINED
Yeo Siew Hua
95 minutes
Mandarin, English, Bengali

Currently Streaming on Netflix

A mystery about a Chinese construction worker who goes missing and a cop in Singapore investigating the disappearance

Slovakia
never nominated*
submitting since 1993

LET THERE BE LIGHT
Marko Skop
Official Site
93 minutes
Slovak

No US Distribution Yet

 A family drama  about a construction worker who realizes his son has joined a paramilitary youth group.

*One Slovak film was nominated when they were part of Czecho-slovakia:  The Shop on Main Street (1965)

Slovenia
never nominated (submitting since 1993)

HISTORY OF LOVE
Sonja Prosenc
Official Facebook
105 minutes
Slovenian & English

No US Distribution Yet

A family drama about a mother's death. The hearing disabled daughter realizes she'd been keeping secrets from her children. 

 

South Africa
2 noms | 1 win
(submitting since 1989)

KNUCKLE CITY
Jahmil XT Qubeka
124 minutes
Xhosa

No US Distribution Yet

A crime drama about the two sons of a legendary boxer, one who becomes a boxer the other a criminal.

 

South Korea
never nominated (submitting since 1962)

PARASITE
Bong Joon-ho
Official Site 
132 minutes
Korean 

Spirit Nom (Foreign)

NOW PLAYING

This year's Palme D'Or winner from Cannes is a brilliant black comedy about a con-artist family and the wealthy world they infiltrate from the South Korean master behind Snowpiercer, Mother, Okja, and more...

Spain
19 noms | 4 wins (submitting since 1956)

PAIN AND GLORY
Pedro Almodóvar
113 minutes
Spanish

 EFA Nominee

NOW PLAYING

Almodovar won this category previously for All About My Mother. His latest is personal drama about a film director reaching the end of his career and recalling his youth. 

Not Selected: the animated Bunuel in the labyrinthy of the turtles, and While at War by Alejandro Amenabar

Sweden
16 noms | 3 wins (submitting since 1956)

AND THEN WE DANCED 
Levan Akin
105 minutes
Georgian

Opening in the US in 2020 from Music Box Films

Levan Akin is a Swedish director of Georgian descent. This gay romantic drama about dancers takes place in Georgia. Sweden hasn't won since Fanny & Alexander (1983)

Not Selected: The other finalists this year were sci-fi drama Aniara and thriller Quick

Switzerland
5 noms | 2 wins (submitting since 1961)

WOLKENRUCH'S WONDROUS JOURNEY INTO THE ARMS OF A SHIKSA 
Michael Steiner
Official Site 
90 minutes 
German, Yiddish, Hebrew

No US Distribution Yet

A comedy about an orthodox Jew whose mother wants him to marry a woman just like her.

 

Taiwan
3 noms | 1 win* (submitting since 1957)

DEAR EX
Mag Hsu & Hsu Chih-Yen
100 minutes
Mandarin

Currently streaming on Netflix

This is about a widow and her late husband's boyfriend. It won 3 Golden Horse Awards 

* Taiwan's entire Oscar history comes from Ang Lee.

Thailand
never nominated (submitting since 1984)

KRASUE: INHUMAN KISS
Sitisiri Mongkolsiri
122 minutes
Thai

Currently streaming on Netflix

Bless all countries brave enough to send horror films or other such genre efforts that Oscar almost never goes for. This one is about a girl whose head detaches from her body to hunt for flesh at night.

Tunisia
never nominated (submitting infrequently since 1995)

DEAR SON
Mohamed Ben Attia
104 minutes
Arabic

No US Distribution Yet

A couple with high hopes for their son realize he has joined ISIS

Turkey
never nominated (submitting since 1964...and every year without fail since 2005)

COMMITMENT
Semih Kaplanoglu
Official Twitter 

135 minutes
Turkish 

No US Distribution Yet

This is the first in a planned trilogy of film. It's about a mother and a nanny she hires (who also just had a baby)

Ukraine
1 nom*
(submitting since 1997)

HOMEWARD
Narimen Aliev
Facebook Page 

96 minutes
Tatar, Ukrainian, Russian 

No US Distribution Yet

This bleak drama is about a father and son transporting their dead son/brother back to their homeland of Crimea

 

 

 

United Kingdom
(submitting since )

THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WORLD
Chiwetel Ejiofor

113 minutes

Currenly streaming on Netflix

Drama about a teenage boy building a wind generator to save his village from drought.

Uruguay
never nominated*
(submitting since 1992)

THE MONEYCHANGER
Federico Veiroj

97 minutes
Spanish 

No US Distribution Yet

A dramedy covering two decades in the life of a man caught up in book-cooking schemes. Daniel Hendler stars

Uzbekistan
FIRST SUBMISSION !

HOT BREAD
Umid Khamdamov
87 minutes
Uzbek
Official Site

No US Distribution Yet

Drama about a young girl facing multiple problems living with her grandmother after her parents divorce.

Venezuela
never nominated (submitting since 1978)
 

BEING IMPOSSIBLE
Patricia Ortega
97 minutes
Spanish

No US Distribution Yet

A drama about a woman who, after painful sex with her boyfriend, discovers that she was born intersex. She questions if she wants to continue life as a woman.

Vietnam
1 nomination
(submitting since 1993)

FURIE
Le Van Kiet
98 minutes
Vietnamese

Currently streaming on Netflix

An action drama about a woman trying to escap her violent past who is drawn back in when her daughter is kidnapped

 

STATS and PREDICTIONS

• AFGHANISTAN through GEORGIA 

• GERMANY through NORWAY