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91st Oscars. Oscar Contenders of 2018 (for the 2019 Ceremony) - For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes

 discuss on the blog

 

29 of 87 Submissions
Part One: Afghanistan through Georgia
Last Update October 23rd, 2018

Afghanistan through Georgia Germany through Norway | Pakistan through Yemen |

coverage of this Oscar race:
 all the trailers | all the debut directors | all 20 female directors 
previously submitted auteurs | Nathaniel's rankings  | 
12 international hunks | LGBT entries and Trivia | 

Afghanistan
never nominated
(submitting since 1996)

RONA AZIM'S MOTHER
Jamshid Mahmoudi

89 minutes
Persian, Dari

A drama about an elderly woman illegally immigrating to Germany to be with her family there. Mahmoudi previously directed another Afghan submission A Few Cubic Meters of Love (2014) 

Algeria
5 noms | 1 win (subitting since 1969)

UNTIL THE END OF TIME
Yasmine Chouikh

93 minutes
Arabic

A romantic drama about a grieving widow who begins to fall in love with a gravedigger.

Fun trivia: the director Yasmine Chouikh is the daughter of Yamina Bachir Chouik who was previously the only female director to have a film submitted by Algeria

Argentina
7 noms | 2 wins (submitting since 1961)

EL ANGEL
Luis Ortega

118 minutes
Spanish

Opens in the US on November 9th

Fictionalized true story about a young beautiful man who is nicknamed 'the angel of death' by the press after a crime spree with multiple thefts and homicides. Produced by Pedro Almodóvar.

Not selected: Other Argentinian films this year included the LGBT drama Marilyn, the dancer drama Malambo, Sundance acting winner Queen of Fear, and the melodrama Quietude from previously submitted director Pablo Trapero.

Armenia
never nominated
(submitting since 2001)

SPITAK
Alexander Kott

98 minutes
Armenian  

The story of a man searching for his family who were trapped in the epicenter of Armenia's deadliest earthquake in 1988

Australia
1 nomination (submitting since 1996)

JIRGA
Benjamin Gilmour

78 minutes
English and Pushto

An Australian man returns to Afghanistan seeking redemption for the accidental killing of a civilian during the war.

 

Austria
4 noms | 2 wins (submitting since 1961)

THE WALDHEIM WALTZ
Ruth Beckerman
Official Site 

93 minutes
German, English, and French

A documentary about Kurt Josef Waldheim and his role in the Nazi regime of WW II

Not Selected: Katharina Mückstein's LGBT drama L'Animale and costume drama Mademoiselle Paradis which we loved last year at festivals 

Bangladesh
never nominated (submitting since 2002)

NO BED OF ROSES
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

85 minutes
Bengali & English

International star Irrfan Khan leads this film about a man's reunion with his family.

Belarus
never nominated (submitting occasionally since 1994)

CRYSTAL SWAN
dir. Darya Zhuk
Official Site

100 minutes
Russian and English

This feature debut from director/co-writer Darya Zhuk is set in the 1990s and concerns a young DJ whose faked US Visa application gets her in trouble

Belgium
7 noms | 0 wins (submitting since 1967)

GIRL
Lukas Dhont

105 minutes
French, Flemish, English

A story of a trans ballerina that has already proven to be an awards magnet at Cannes. Netflix picked it up.

Not Selected: Sofia, also a prize winner at Cannes.

Bolivia
never nominated
(submitting since 1995)

THE GOALKEEPER (also known as MURALLA)
Rodrigo Patiño
Official Site

90 minutes
Spanish

A thriller about a desperate man who gets involved in human trafficking

 

 

 

Bosnia & Herzegovina
1 nom | 1 win
(submitting since 1994)

NEVER LEAVE ME
Aida Begic

96 minutes
Arabic and Turkish 

A story of orphaned boys living as refugees in a mythical Turkish city. This is from the director of Snow and Children of Sarajevo, two previous submissions.

 

Brazil
4 noms | 0 wins (submitting since 1960)

THE GREAT MYSTICAL CIRCUS
Cacá Diegues

105 minutes
Portuguese

A century in the life of a circus owning family

Not Selected: 21 other finalists:  Caso do Homem, Desmonte do Monte, Polidoro, Liquid TruthEx-Shaman
Yonlu, Don't Swallow My Heart Alligator Girl!, Maybe a Love Story, Wildcard 
The Seamstress, Good MannersLoveling
Something LikeParaíso Perdido,  Além do Homem, Como É Cruel ViverFriendly Beast, Unicorn, Rust
Encantados 
Dedo na Ferida.

Bulgaria
never nominated (submitting since 1971)

OMNIPRESENT
Ilian Djevelekov

120 minutes
Bulgarian

Available to stream on Row 8

A drama about a man who spies on his neighbors, employees and own family through hidden cameras.

Not selected: Another Bulgarian film this year was Aga about elderly eskimos.  

Cambodia
1 nomination (submitting since 1994)

GRAVES WITHOUT A NAME
Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh on Twitter 

Rithy Panh, Cambodia's only Oscar nominee via The Missing Picture, is back with a new documentary aboutu the Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Canada
7 noms | 1 win
(submitting since 1971)

FAMILY TIES
Sophie Dupuis

87 minutes
French

Theodore Pellerin (who has a key part in Boy Erased) plays a young violent man  who lives with his family in a cramped apartment and is trying to balance family, work with his brother, and his dealings with a drug cartel.

 

Chile
2 noms | 1 win
(submitting since 1990)

AND SUDDENLY THE DAWN
Silvio Caiozzi
Official Site

195 minutes
Spanish

This is the third time Chile has submitted this director -- he was actually behind their very first submission in 1990 (The Moon in the Mirror). Last year Chile had its first win with Sebastian Lelio's A Fantastic Woman.

Not Selected: Festival film Too Late to Die Young about families who try rural living in the 1990s

China
2 nominations
(submitting since 1979)

HIDDEN MAN
Jiang Wen

137 minutes
Mandarin, Japanese, French, and English

A swordsman tries to solve an old murder case in 1930s China. The film stars Eddie Peng, Fan Liao and Jiang Wen. This is the third installment in this actor/director's gangster trilogy that includes Let The Bullets Fly and Gone With the Bullets, neither of which were submitted in this category.

Not Selected: High profile chinese films this year were  Ash is Purest White. Long Day's Journey Into Night, Shadow and Dead Pigs.

Colombia
1 nomination
(submitting since 1980)

BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra

125 minutes
Spanish & Wayuu

Opens Feb 13th in the US

Ciro Guerra directed Colombia's only nominee, the incredible Embrace of the Serpent, is back (with a codirector this time) for a film aboutthe marijuana boom and how a violent decade affects a family. 

Costa Rica
never nominated
(submitting since 20Croat05)

MEDEA
Alexandra Latishev Salazer
Official Facebook

70 minutes
Spanish

A drama about a university student testing out her new life. Her behavior starts to change radically.

 

Croatia
never nominated*
(submitting since 1992)

THE EIGHTH COMMISSIONER
Ivan Salaj

139 minutes
Croatian

A comedy about a politician sent to a remote island to oversee their first election.

*two Croatian-based films were nominated from the  former Yugoslavia: The Road a Year Long (1958) and The Ninth Circle (1960

 

 

Czech Republic
8 noms* | 2 wins* (submitting since 1994 as Czech Republic)

WINTER FLIES
Olmo Omerzu
Official Site

85 minutes
Czech

A road trip comedy about adolescent boys.

*These figures include the Oscar record from Czechoslovokia before the split (except one winner which was Slovakian)

 Denmark
13 nominations | 3 wins (submitting since 1956)

THE GUILTY
Gustav Möller

85 minutes
Danish

Opens in the US on October 19th

Denmark's been on such a roll with Oscar! In the past 12 years they've scored 6 nominations and 1 win. (Plus an extra finalist but not quite nominee). This year they're betting on a thriller about a police officer on the phone with a kidnapped woman. It's a crowd pleaser that's already won prizes at a few film festivals including Sundance. Möller cites Dog Day Afternoon and the podcast "Serial" as influences on the movie.

Not Selected: The other two finalists for submission were A Fortunate Man is from Billie August whose films have been nominated before, and Winter Brothers by Hylnur Palmason.

 

 

Dominican Republic
never nominated (submitting since 1983)

COCOTE
Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias
Official Site

106 minutes
Spanish

An Evangelical Christian is asked to participate in religious rites that clash with his faith during a funeral service for his father. 

Ecuador
never nominated (submitting since 2000)

A SON OF MAN
Jamaicanoproblem and Pablo Agüero
Official Site

STILL LOOKING FOR POSTER - MADE THE IMAGE ABOVE FROM STILLS

92 minutes
Spanish, German, English and Quechua

A father and son on a journey for Inca gold. Agüero made the very odd Eva Doesn't Sleep a few years ago.

Egypt
never nominated (submitting since 1958)

YOMEDDINE
Abu Bakr Shawky

97 minutes
Arabic

As we suspected they chose the comedy that played the Cannes festival. It's about a man and his apprentice who leave a leper colony to search for their families.

 

Estonia
1 nomination
(submitting since 1992)

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
dir. Liina Triškina-Vanhatalo
Official Site 

??? minutes
Estonian

A 30-year-old construction worker becomes a single parent when his ex girlfriend doesn't want her baby.

Finland
1 nom | 0 wins
(submitting since 1973)

EUTHANIZER
Teemu Nikki

85 minutes
Finnish

A man who euthanizes pets for a living gets in trouble with a white supremacist.

France
3 Honoraries | 37 noms | 9 wins (submitting since 1956)

MEMOIR OF WAR
Emmanuel Finkiel
Trailer

127 minutes
French

In US theaters now

Benoît Magimel (The Piano Teacher) and Mélanie Thierry (The Princess of Montpensier) as Marguerite Duras star in this drama set in Nazi occupied Paris from the novel written by Duras.

Not Selected: The other finalists were the crazy Climax by Gaspar Noe,  Custody by Xavier Legrand, Mademoiselle de Joncquieres by Emmanuel Mouret, and The Four Sisters by Claude Lanzmann.  

Georgia
1 nom | 0 wins
(submitting since 1996)

NAMME
Zaza Khalvashi
Director's Official Page

91 minutes
Georgian

A family drama about environmental dangers and local healing waters. Khalvashi is a non-prolific director -- this is only his 4th film in the past 28 years but he was submitted once before in 1999 for Here Comes the Dawn

Not Selected: Options included Horizon by Tinatin Kajrishvilli screened in Berlin and Khibula from George Ovashvilli who has been submitted twice before

Continue on to

GERMANY through NORWAY

and

PAKISTAN through YEMEN

or

PREDICTION / STATS PAGE