We will fill in news as it happens...until we have the final submission list and our trademark chart will be as detailed as you've grown accustomed to. 

most recent update: October 14th, 2011

ALBANIA to IRELAND

THERE ARE 63 FINALISTS THIS YEAR. 

• Israel to Vietnam - the second half of the chart

For a quicker survey, here are our "way too soon" predictions (without seeing the films). More to come obviously. In the meantime, follow articles on this year's Oscar race.

Links to Official Sites will be added this weekend PLEASE EXCUSE A FULL BLANK SPOTS - AND MESSY CODING --  AS WE FILL IN DETAILS / SPRUCE UP CHARTS THIS WEEKEND
ALBANIA never nominated  "Amnesty" Buyar Alimani	ARGENTINA 6 noms | 2 wins  "Aballay" Fernando Spiner	AUSTRIA 3 noms | 1 win "Breathing (Atmen)"  Karl Markovics	BELGIUM 5 nominations "Bullhead"  Michaël R Roskam	BOSNIA & HERSEGOVINA 1 nom | 1 win "Belvedere" Ahmen Imamovic
Details 83 min | Albanian Genre drama Starring tba Synopsis tba Additional Info The original submission "Forgiveness of Blood" was not deemed "Albanian enough"  marking the second time that Joshua Marston has been booted from this category (this happened to him previously with Maria Full of Grace. The country resubmitted)	Details tba Genre tba Starring Tba Synopsis tba. Additional Info This wasn't originally announced as a finalist. They skipped over Widows, Bayo Hill, Cowboy and The Student to submit it.	Details unknown min | German Genre Drama Starring Thomas Schubert (who won Best Actor presented by Angelina Jolie! at the Sarajevo Fest) Synopsis a 19 year old suffers guilt from past crimes after being released from prison.	Details 124 min | Dutch & French Genre Crime Thriller Starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy Synopsis Cattle farmers, illegal growth hormones and the mafia Additional Info a controversial selection as there was a Dardenne Brothers movie available (The Kid With A Bike).	Details 90 min | Bosnian Genre Post War Drama Starring Jasna Diklic Synopsis a widow of the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia and Herzegovina searching for the remains of her husband and son. It's a portrait of war's troubled aftermath.
BRAZIL 4 nominations "Elite Squad 2" Jose Padilha	BULGARIA never nominated "Tilt"  Viktor Chouchkov	CANADA  5 noms | 1 win "Monsieur Lazhar" Philippe Falardeau	CHILE never nominated "Violeta" Andres Wood	CHINA 2 nominations "The Flowers of War" Zhang Yimou
Details 115 min | Portuguese Genre Prison /Crime Drama Starring Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro (and Seu Jorge from The Life Aquatic) Synopsis Corrupt officers versus violent criminals in Rio de Janeiro  Additional Info The subtitle is "The Enemy Within". It's now the highest grossing film in Brazilian history	Details 94 min | Bulgarian Genre Social Drama Starring Yavor Baharov and Radina Kardjilova Synopsis A late 80s/early 90s era rowdy youth drama.  Additional Info It's a huge hit in its homeland	Details unknown min | French Genre Immigration Drama Starring Monhamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Emilien Néron, Danielle Proulx Synopsis  An Algerian is hired to replace a recently deceased elementary school teacher  Additional Info This is based on a play.	Details unknown min | Spanish Genre Biopic Starring Francisca Gavilán, Gabriela Aguilera Synopsis  a portrait of the politically active Chilean musician and artist	Details unknown min | Chinese, Mandarin, Japanese, English Genre War Starring Christian Bale, Shigiyo Kobayashi Synopsis  Details the Nanjing massacre in 1937. Christian Bale plays a priest. More on this film
COLOMBIA never nominated "The Colors of the Mountain" Carlose César Arbeláez	CROATIA never nominated "72 Days" Danilo Serbedzija	CUBA 1 nomination "Habanastation" Ian Padron	CZECH REPUBLIC 8 noms | 3 wins "Alois Nebel" Tomas Lunak	DENMARK  8 noms | 3 wins "SuperClásico" Ole Christian Madsen
Details 90 min | Spanish Genre Drama Starring Hernán Mauricio Ocampo Synopsis Young Manuel won't give up his football when it lands in a minefield. The film looks at children in the dangerous crossfire between rebels and military in Colombia.  Additional Info The lead child performance is supposedly very good.		Details unknown min | Spanish Genre Sociopolitical Drama Synopsis  Details the growing social inequalities in Cuba by looking at two young boys who are classmates. Additional Info YouTube has the whole film for those who speak Spanish.	.	Details 99 min | Danish, Spanish, English Genre Marital Comedy Starring Paprika Steen one of our favorites and Anders Berthelsen Synopsis  A man travels to Buenos Aires to convince his wife who has a new lover to return to him. Additional Info SuperClásico was selected over two other finalists: A Funny Man (tiff review) and the drama, A Family.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC never nominated "Love Child (La Hija Natural)" Leticia Tonos	EGYPT never nominated "Lust" Khaled El Hagar	ESTONIA never nominated "Letters to Angel" Sulev Keedis	FINLAND 1 nomination "Le Havre" Aki Kaurismaki	FRANCE 36 noms | 9 wins | 3 honorarys "Declaration of War" Valérie Donzelli
			Details 93 min | Finnish Genre Immigration Drama Starring André Wilms and Kati Outinen  Synopsis  a old shoeshiner befriends a young illegal immigrant from Africa  Additional Info Finland has gone with their most famous auteur again -- he gave them their only nominee The Man Without a Past (2002)	Details 100 min | French Genre True Story Medical Drama Starring Valérie Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm (Come Undone) Synopsis  Donzelli tells her own family's struggle to save her infant son from a tumor.  Additional Info France hasn't won in 19 years (they must be itching for it!). More on this film...
GEORGIA 1 nomination "Chantrapas" Otar Iosseliani	GERMANY 16 noms | 3 wins "Pina" Wim Wenders	GREECE 5 nominations "Attenberg" Athena Rachel Tsangari	HONG KONG 5 nominations "A Simple Life" Ann Hui	HUNGARY 8 noms | 1 win "The Turin Horse" Bela Tarr
	Details 100 min | MultiLingual Genre Dance Documentary Starring various dancers Synopsis   This acclaimed 3D documentary is largely a performance piece as dancers perform influential pieces by Pina Bausch who died when Wenders was first developing the film. Dancers convinced him to continue and the reviews are very promising. Capsule Review	Details 95 min | Greek Genre Drama Starring Ariana Labed and Giorgos Lanthimos Synopsis  a woman studies human nature as if its an alien species Additional Info Best Actress win at 2010's Venice festival.	Details 118 min | Cantonese Genre Old Age Drama Starring Andy Lau and Deannie Yip Synopsis  a grown man's nanny grows ill and their caretaker relationship switches around Additional Info Deannie Yip won Best Actress at Venice 2011 Venice Review	Details 146 min | Hungarian Genre Bela Tarr (some directors are their own genres, don'cha know) Starring Francisca Gavilán, Gabriela Aguilera Synopsis  I haven't been able to understand the synopsis I must admit.  Additional Info Hungary has been bravely submitting anti-Oscar films for a couple of decades now. This one has half an hour of potato boilings (TIFF review)
ICELAND 1 nomination "Volcano" Runar Runarsson	INDIA 3 nominations "Abu, Son of Adam (Adaminte Makan Abu)" Salim Ahamed	INDONESIA never nominated "Under the Protection of Ka'Bah" Hanny R Saputra	IRAN 1 nomination "A Separation" Asghar Farhadi	IRELAND never nominated "As If I Am Not There" Juanita Wilson
Details 95 min | Icelandic Genre Old Age Drama Starring Theodór Júlíusson Synopsis  a retired man who has grown estranged from his children begins reconnecting with his life  Additional Info Not to be confused with that Tommy Lee Jones / Anne Heche disaster movie ;)	Details 101 min | Malayalam Genre Old Age Drama Starring Salim Kumar Synopsis A poor perfume seller and his wife, getting on in years, have one last wish: to make the Haji pilgrimage. But their strict religious beliefs prevent them from getting the money they need for the trek.		Details unknown | Persian Genre Marital / Courtroom Drama Starring Peyman Moaadi an Leila Hatami Synopsis  A couple struggles with their future: the wife wants to divorce and move to America, the husband wants  to stay and care for his father Additional Info Other films considered for the submission honor were Alzheimer's, Here without Me, Salve and No Men Allowed  REVIEWED	Details 109 min | Bosnian Genre War  Starring Stellan Skarsgård (!) and Miraj Grbic Synopsis  a story taken from true stories uncovered by crime tribunals, a schoolteacher suffers the basest treatment at the hands of soldiers during the Bosnian war

Continue on to ITALY through VIETNAM

Thank you to the following readers or friends (or both) for their help thus far:
Brad, David, Geert, Guy, Hugo, Ivan, Jin, Jonah, Jordi, Jorge, José, Marcio, Marcos, Patrick, SkyFly, Thomas and Yonatan

Entries that were submitted but do not appear on the finalist list for one reason or another: 
Albania's "The Forgiveness of Blood" and Slovenia's "Silent Sonata" which is sometimes referred to as "Circus Fantasticus"

Countries that sometimes or regularly submit that didn't this year:
Algeria, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Luxembourg