Oscar International Feature Film Race: Complete List of Submissions
Oscar International Feature Film Race: Complete List of Submissions:
The deadline to submit films in the international feature Oscar category was Oct. 3, but the Academy has not yet announced the full list of accepted titles, so it is a provisional report. AMPAS will release a shortlist of 15 movies on Dec. 21 and the nominations will be announced Jan. 24. The Oscar ceremony will take place March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
ALBANIA
A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On
DIRECTOR: Gentian Koçi
LOGLINE: Deaf-mute twins in Tirana discover they have a genetical disease that will take away their sight slowly. They have a decision to make.
INTERNATIONAL SALES: M-Appeal
ALGERIA
Our Brothers
DIRECTOR: Rachid Bouchareb
LOGLINE: Mixing documentary and fiction, pic explores police violence and the deaths of student Malik Oussekine and bar patron Abdel Benyahia.
INTL. SALES: Wild Bunch
ARGENTINA
Argentina , 1985
Director: Santiago Mitre
LOGLINE: Lawyers battle Argentina’s military junta in the 1980s.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon Prime Video
ARMENIA
Aurora’s Sunrise
DIRECTOR: Inna Sahakyan
LOGLINE: Based on Aurora Madriganian’s bestselling autobiography, the animated film details her escape from genocide as a teen and rise to stardom.
INTL. SALES: Bars Media
AUSTRIA
Corsage
DIRECTOR: Maria Kruetzer
LOGLINE: Fictional story on a year in the life of Austria’s Empress Elisabeth.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: IFC Films
BANGLADESH
Hawa
DIRECTOR: Mejbaur Rahman Sumon
LOGLINE: When fisherman catch a beautiful woman in their net, mistrust and murder follow.
INTL. SALES: MUBI
BELGIUM
Close
DIRECTOR: Lukas Dhont
LOGLINE: Cannes grand prix winner about two teenage friends whose bond is suddenly shattered.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: A24
BOLIVIA
Utama
DIRECTOR: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
LOGLINE: An unusually harsh drought causes a dilemma for longtime couple Virginio and Sisa: Do they continue as they were or resist?
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
A Ballad
DIRECTOR: Aida Begić
LOGLINE: Meri returns home after her marriage falls apart but things are not going well, so she auditions for a film role.
INTL. SALES: Film House, Sarajevo
BRAZIL
Mars One
DIRECTOR: Gabriel Martins
LOGLINE: Members of a working-class family pursue dreams of escaping the lives laid out for them by society.
INTL. SALES: Magnolia Pictures
BULGARIA
In the Heart of the Machine
DIRECTOR: Martin Makariev
LOGLINE: Prisoners doing forced labor in a steel plant find their lives changed one day.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon Prime Video
CAMBODIA
Return to Seoul
DIRECTOR: Davy Chou
LOGLINE: Twenty-five-year-old woman adopted by a French couple seeks out her birth parents during a trip to South Korea.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Classic Pictures
CAMEROON
The Planter’s Plantation
DIRECTOR: Dingha Young Eystein
LOGLINE: A young girl fights to preserve her father’s legacy on a West African plantation in the 1960s.
PRODCO: Extrafix, BGC Melody Story, Inn Amore Pictures
CANADA
Eternal Spring
DIRECTOR: Jason Loftus
LOGLINE: Animated documentary on Falun Gong’s takeover of a Chinese state broadcaster.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Lofty Sky Pictures
CHILE
Blanquita
DIRECTOR: Fernando Guzzoni
LOGLINE: Venice player based on the real-life “Spiniak Case” revolving around businessmen trafficking in foster-care children
INTL. SALES: New Europe Sales
CHINA
Nice View
DIRECTOR: Wen Muyi
Logline: A 20-year orphaned man moves to the Shenzhen megacity and tries to make money to pay for his 6-year-old sister’s heart surgery.
Prodco: Dirty Monkey
COLOMBIA
The Kings of the World
DIRECTOR: Laura Mora Ortega
LOGLINE: San Sebastian competition pic on street kids from Medillin who leave the city to live on
and one of them inherited from his grandmother.
INTL. SALES: Film Factory
COSTA RICA
Domingo and the Mist
DIRECTOR: Ariel Escalante
LOGLINE: Cannes’ Un Certain Regard entry centers on a Costa Rican man who fights attempts to destroy his home for a highway.
INTL. SALES: Films Boutique
CROATIA
Safe Place
DIRECTOR: Juraj Lerotić
LOGLINE: Locarno and Sarajevo fest winner is an autobiographical story about one brother trying help the other in the wake of his suicide attempt.
INTL. SALES: Pipser
CZECHIA
Il Boemo
DIRECTOR: Petr Václav
LOGLINE: San Sebastian competition player is about conductor Josef Mysliveček, nicknamed the Bohemian, who was a mentor
of Mozart’s.
INTL. SALES: Loco Films
DENMARK
Holy Spider
DIRECTOR: Ali Abbasi
LOGLINE: Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the actress prize at Cannes for this story of a journo who investigates a serial killer in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad.
INTL. SALES: Utopia
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Bantu Mama
DIRECTOR: Ivan Herrera
LOGLINE: An Afro-European woman is sheltered by three kids in dangerous area of Santo Domingo.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Array Releasing
ECUADOR
Lo Invisible
DIRECTOR: Javier Andrade
LOGLINE: 2021 Toronto entry about a woman who is expected to keep her postpartum depression invisible and descends into madness.
INTL. SALES: Trópico Cine
ESTONIA
Kalev
DIRECTOR: Ove Musting
LOGLINE: Celebrated Estonian basketball team Kalev must decide whether to participate in championship games in 1990 when the Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse.
INTL. SALES: Film New Europe
FINLAND
Girl Picture
DIRECTOR: Alli Haapasalo
LOGLINE: Portrait of Gen Y trio growing up in Helsinki, which unspooled in TIFF digital screenings.
INTL. SALES: Nordisk Film
FRANCE
Saint Omer
DIRECTOR: Alice Diop
LOGLINE: Venice prizewinner centers around a real-life infanticide court case in which the mother, a doctoral student, claims sorcery as the culprit.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Neon/Super
GEORGIA
A Long Break
DIRECTOR: Davit Pirtskhalava
LOGLINE: A harmless reunion turns into a gathering about holding a former bully to task. Unspooled at TIFF.
INTL. SALES: Syndicado
All Quiet on the Western Front
DIRECTOR:Edward Berger
LOGLINE: Teen soldier faces the terrifying facts of trench warfare during World War I; based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix
GREECE
Magnetic Fields
DIRECTOR: Yorgis Gousi
LOGLINE: Comic-book arts Gousi’s debut feature, which premiered at Thessaloniki last year, centers around two strangers who meet on a Greek island.
INTL. SALES: Heretic
GUATEMALA
The Silence of the Mole
DIRECTOR: Anäis Taracena
LOGLINE: In the 1970s, journalist Elías Barahona infiltrated the repressive government; doc traces the effects of this mole in cracking Guatemala’s hidden history.
PRODCO: Asombro Producciones
HONG KONG
Where the Wind Blows
DIRECTOR: Philip Yung
LOGLINE: Crime thriller centering around corrupt Hong Kong cops.
INTL. SALES: Mei Ah Entertainment
HUNGARY
Blockade
DIRECTOR: Ádám Tősé
LOGLINE: Set in the 1990 taxi blockade of Budapest, film shows the struggle for democracy as high gas prices consume the country.
INTL. SALES: Intercom
ICELAND
Beautiful Beings
DIRECTOR: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
LOGLINE: Berlin Panorama player is a coming-of-age tale of boys who feel left out.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Altered Innocence
INDIA
The Last Film Show
DIRECTOR: Pan Nalin
LOGLINE: Nine-year-old Samay discovers the magic of movies and pursues 35mm film.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: The Samuel Goldwyn Co.
INDONESIA
Ngeri Ngeri Sedap
DIRECTOR:: Bene Dionysius
LOGLINE: Batak tribe parents pretend to fight so that their children will come home.
INTL. SALES: Netflix
IRAN
World War III
DIRECTOR: Houman Seyyedi
LOGLINE: Venice Horizons player centers around a day laborer who gets the chance of a lifetime when he’s cast in a movie.
INTL. SALES: Iranian Independents
IRAQ
The Exam
DIRECTOR: Shawkat Amin Korki
LOGLINE: Older sister helps the younger one cheat so she can pass a university exam in order to better her life.
INTL. SALES: ArtHood Entertainment
IRELAND
The Quiet Girl
DIRECTOR: Colm Bairéad
LOGLINE: Berlin Generation Kplus winner centers around a neglected girl sent to relatives for the summer.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Neon/Super
ISRAEL
Cinema Sabaya
DIRECTOR: Orit Fouks Rotem
LOGLINE: A group of Jewish and Arab women take part in a workshop and as they learn about each other their beliefs are challenged.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber
ITALY
Nostalgia
DIRECTOR: Mario Martone
LOGLINE: Based on a 2016 novel by Ermanno Rea about childhood friends who are separated when one leaves for Egypt while the other rises to become a Mafia boss.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Breaking Glass Pictures
JAPAN
Plan 75
DIRECTOR: Chie Hayakawa
LOGLINE: Cannes-bowing social drama is set in the future in which the government offers incentives to senior citizens who euthanize themselves.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: KimStim
JORDAN
Farha
DIRECTOR: Darin J. Sallam
LOGLINE: 2021 TIFF player centers around a 14-year-old girl who watches the violence in her Palestinian village from her kitchen.
INTL. SALES: Picture Tree Intl.
KAZAKHSTAN
Life
DIRECTOR: Emir Baigazin
LOGLINE: A company that digitizes memories loses data; pic unspooled in TIFF.
PRODCO: Emir Baigazin Production
KENYA
Terastorm
DIRECTOR: Andrew Kaggia
LOGLINE: Animated pic on African superheroes who unite to fight an ancient wizard who threatens the world with a powerful artifact.
INTL. SALES: Africana Digital
KOSOVO
Looking for Venera
DIRECTOR: Norika Sefa
LOGLINE: Teen who lives in the village with three generations of her family has no privacy and longs for some freedom. Film won the IFFR special jury award.
PRODCO: Circle Production
KYRGYZSTAN
Home for Sale
DIRECTOR: Taalaibek Kulmendeev
LOGLINE: World premiering at Busan fest, pic centers around a couple being harassed by loan sharks.
PRODCO: Kyrgyzfilm
LATVIA
January
DIRECTOR: Viesturs Kairiss
LOGLINE: As Latvia tries to free itself from a collapsing Soviet Union, one student first joins the Russian military then films the battling sides. Pic unspooled at Tribeca.
INTL. SALES: The Yellow Affair
LEBANON
Memory Box
DIRECTOR: Joana Hadjithomas
LOGLINE: Montreal teen finds her mother’s mementos from her youth in war-torn Lebanon.
INTL. SALES: Playtime
LITHUANIA
Pilgrims
DIRECTOR: Laurynas Bareiša
LOGLINE: This Venice player centers on an odd couple trying to find out what happened to their loved ones in a traumatic past.
INTL. SALES: Reason8 Films
LUXEMBOURG
Icare
DIRECTOR: Carlo Vogele
LOGLINE: Animated story about young Icarus who tries to rescue his imprisoned friend.
PRODCO: Iris Productions
MALTA
Carmen
DIRECTOR: Valerie Buhagiar
LOGLINE: When her priest brother dies, a 50-year-old woman is finally free of having to care for him.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Good Deed Entertainment
MEXICO
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
DIRECTOR: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
LOGLINE: Existential comedy follows a journalist who goes home to receive a prestigious award. The filmmaker cut 22 minutes after the Venice premiere.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix
MOLDOVA
Carbon
DIRECTOR: Ion Borș
LOGLINE: San Sebastian fest winner sees two enlistees who stumble on a carbonized body and try to identify and bury the remains.
INTL. SALES: Film Freeway
MONTENEGRO
The Elegy of Laurel
DIRECTOR: Dusan Kasalica
LOGLINE: World-premiering at the Sarajevo fest, this is the story of a professor in marital crisis who escapes to the wilderness where he falls for a girl who was once a snake.
PRODCO: Meander Film
MOROCCO
The Blue Caftan
DIRECTOR: Maryam Touzani
LOGLINE: A wife watches her husband, a closeted tailor, fall for his handsome apprentice.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Strand Releasing
NEPAL
Butterfly on a Windowpane
DIRECTOR: Sujit Bidari
LOGLINE: Busan entry about a brother who doesn’t want his sister to give up her dreams.
PRODCO: Icefall Productions
NETHERLANDS
Narcosis
DIRECTOR: Martijn de Jong
LOGLINE: Close-knit family suffers when the patriarch fails to surface from a dive.
PRODCO: Oak Motion Pictures
NEW ZEALAND
Muru
DIRECTOR: Te Arepa Kah
LOGLINE: Drama about the 2007 police raids on the Ngāi Tūhoe community of Rūātoki in New Zealand.
INTL. SALES: Arclight Films Intl.
NORTH MACEDONIA
The Happiest Man in the World
DIRECTOR: Teona Strugar Mitevska
LOGLINE: In the aftermath of the war in Bosnia, a soldier seeks forgiveness from his victim.
INTL. SALES: Pyramide Intl.
NORWAY
War Sailor
DIRECTOR: Gunnar Vikene
LOGLINE: Alfred is in the middle of the Atlantic when World War II breaks out and neither he nor any of the other sailors have any weapons.
INTL. SALES: Beta Cinema
PAKISTAN
Joyland
DIRECTOR: Saim Sadiq
LOGLINE: Queer Palme winner centers on the effect in a traditional family when the youngest son joins a trans dancer.
INTL. SALES: WME
PALESTINE
Mediterranean Fever
DIRECTOR: Maha Haj
LOGLINE: Middle-age neighbors in Haifa share a frenemity; screenplay winner at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
INTL. SALES: Luxbox
PANAMA
Birthday Boy
DIRECTOR: Arturo Montenegro
LOGLINE: Celebrating his 45th birthday at a beach house, Jimmy tells his friends to whoop it up because he is going to commit suicide after the party.
PRODCO: Q Films
PARAGUAY
Eami
DIRECTOR: Paz Encina
LOGLINE: Tiger Award winner about an Ayoreo-Totobiegosode girl who turns into a bird and wanders in the forest after her village and all the people are destroyed.
INTL. SALES: MPM Premium
PERU
Moon Heart
DIRECTOR: Aldo Salvini
LOGLINE: Poor and homeless woman is friendless until a “mechanical angel” comes to her rescue.
PRODCO: Universidad de Lima
PHILIPPINES
On the Job 2: The Missing 8
DIRECTOR: Erik Matti
LOGLINE: Venice player is a sequel about a journolist who investigates the disappearance of his colleague.
INTL. SALES: Warner Media
POLAND
EO
DIRECTOR: Jerzy Skolimowski
LOGLINE: Inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 film “Au Hasard Balthazar,” Cannes competition title follows a donkey’s life through multiple owners.
U.S. DIST: Janus Films/Sideshow
PORTUGAL
Alma Viva
DIRECTOR: Cristèle Alves Meira
LOGLINE: Cannes Critics’ Week entry about a little girl who is haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased grandmother, who was considered a witch.
INTL. SALES: Kinology
ROMANIA
Immaculate
DIRECTORS: Monica Stan and George Chiper
LOGLINE: While her perceived innocence protects a drug addict from the men in rehab, Daria discovers that it comes at a price.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: MUBI
SAUDI ARABIA
Raven Song
DIRECTOR: Mohamed Al Salman
LOGLINE: A young man with a rocky relation with his father falls for a beautiful but mysterious woman at the hotel where he works.
PRODCO: Telfaz 11
SENEGAL
Xalé
DIRECTOR: Moussa Sene Absa
LOGLINE: The arranged marriage of their aunt results in bad consequences for twins and their family.
INTL. SALES: Sudu Connexion
SERBIA
Darkling
DIRECTOR: Dušan Milić
LOGLINE: A thriller about the life of a Serb family outside Kosovo.
INTL. SALES: Wide Management
SINGAPORE
Ajoomma
DIRECTOR: He Shuming
LOGLINE: Widowed housewife follows her passion for Korean soap operas with a visit to Seoul.
INTL. SALES: Rediance
SLOVAKIA
Victim
DIRECTOR: Michal Blasko
LOGLINE: Teenage gymnast’s lies about how he got injured starts a chain of events that spirals
out of control in this Venice Horizons entry.
INTL. SALES: Pluto Sales
SLOVENIA
Orchestra
DIRECTOR: Matevž Luzar
LOGLINE: B&W film about a brass band touring Austria on a bus.
PRODCO: Gustav Film
SOUTH KOREA
Decision to Leave
DIRECTOR: Park Chan-wook
LOGLINE: Detective investigating a death meets the widow of the deceased.
INTL. SALES: MUBI
SWITZERLAND
A Piece of the Sky
DIRECTOR: Michael Koch
LOGLINE: Berlin competition player centering on a couple’s travails when mental illness takes over the man.
INTL. SALES: New Europe Film Sales
SWEDEN
The Cairo Conspiracy
DIRECTOR: Tariq Saleh
LOGLINE: Country boy manages to get into a prestigious Islamic school where he becomes embroiled in its politics.
INTL. SALES: Memento Intl.
SPAIN
Alcarràs
DIRECTOR: Carla Simón
LOGLINE: When the owner of a peach orchard dies, his heir wants to sell off the land on which the Solé family has been growing fruit for generations.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: MUBI
TAIWAN
Goddamned Asura
DIRECTOR: Lou Yi-An
LOGLINE: Deadly night-market shooting is viewed from different characters’ viewpoints, along with varying outcomes; based on real events.
INTL. SALES: Hope Marketing Entertainment
TANZANIA
Tug of War
DIRECTOR: Amil Shivji
LOGLINE: Adaptation of Adam Shafi’s novel about an Indian-Zanzibari girl fleeing an arranged marriage, set against the background of Zanzibar’s fight for independence.
PRODCO: Big World Cinema
THAILAND
One for the Road
DIRECTOR: Nattawut Poonpiriya
LOGLINE: Dying bartender goes on a road trip with his friend to seek forgiveness from those he had wronged in this Sundance World Dramatic selection.
PRODCO: Jetone Films, Houseton
TUNISIA
Under the Fig Tree
DIRECTOR: Erige Sehiri
LOGLINE: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player chronicles a day in the life of women who harvest figs.
INTL. SALES: Luxbox
TURKEY
Kerr
DIRECTOR: Tayfun Pirselimoğlu
LOGLINE: A son who goes to a village for his father’s funeral is trapped there after witnessing a murder; the helmer adapted his own novel.
INTL. SALES: Gataki Films
UGANDA
Tembele
DIRECTOR: Morris Mugisha
LOGLINE: Garbage man in Kampala grieves the death of his infant son in this inaugural entry from Uganda.
PRODCO: Moideas
UKRAINE
Klondike
DIRECTOR: Maryna Er Gorbach
LOGLINE: Family living in Donetsk on the Ukraine-Russia border faces upheaval when flight MH17 crashes near them.
INTL. SALES: ArtHood Entertainment
UNITED KINGDOM
Winners
DIRECTOR: Hassan Nazer
LOGLINE: When 9-year-old Yahya and his friend find an Oscar statutette in a poor Iranian village, Yahya’s boss helps them search for the origial owners.
PRODCO: Edge City Films
URUGUAY
The Employer and the Employee
DIRECTOR: Manolo Nieto
LOGLINE: Relations between two young men at the same workplace are strained by an accident.
INTL. SALES: Latido Films
VENEZUELA
The Box
DIRECTOR: Lorenzo Vigas
LOGLINE: Mystery revolves around fathers, sons and surrogates in Venice competition entry.
INTL. SALES: The Match Factory
VIETNAM
578: Shot of the Madman
DIRECTOR: Luong Đình Dũng
LOGLINE: Father hunts for his kidnapped daughter and the underground forces that have taken her.
U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Letterboxd
View this article at Variety.