Contenders Film: International Kicks Off Today With 29 Films, Oscar Submissions Galore:

The first calendar year to see the physical return of almost every major film festival since the pandemic, 2022 has been a huge morale booster for filmmakers from all around the globe. And now, with the third edition of Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicking off Saturday at 8 a.m. PT, that outreach expands even further: leaving a carbon-free footprint, our online event will showcase the myriad films that soared at Sundance, beguiled Berlin, captivated Cannes, thrilled Telluride, vitalized Venice and touched Toronto, all the while shining a spotlight on the must-see movies that might have flown under your radar.

Since submissions accepted for the Best International Feature Film Oscar category continue to grow — up by something like 30% from just 10 years ago, buoyed no doubt by the boundary-breaking success of 2019’s Parasite — it is harder than ever before to see where the awards race is going. Today’s event is here to help you cut through the noise, talking to stars, directors, producers and writers to find the stories behind the scenes for an audience that wants to know where the new Drive My Car may be heading from.

This year is a wide-open field. From Cannes alone we have Lukas Dhont’s Close (Belgium), Saim Sadiq’s Joyland, Mario Martone’s Nostalgia (Italy), Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave (South Korea), Jerzy Skolimoswki’s EO (Poland), Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider (Denmark), Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (Austria) and, from Sweden, Tarik Saleh’s Cairo Conspiracy (which debuted there as Boy From Heaven).

From the Berlinale there’s Michael Koch’s A Piece of Sky (Switzerland), Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Beautiful Beings (Iceland), and Carla Simon’s Alcarràs (Spain), while from Sundance there’s Gabriel Martins’ Mars One (Brazil) and Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike (Ukraine). Venice, meanwhile, is represented by the likes of Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárittu’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico), Lorenzo Vigas’ The Box (Venezuela), Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, Erik Matti’s On the Job: The Missing 8, and Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 (Argentina).

Toronto gives us Darin J. Sallam’s Farha (Jordan), Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) and Gunnar Vikene’s War Sailor (Norway). And that’s before we get to Lou Yi-an’s Goddamned Asura (Taiwan) there is He Suming’s Ajoomma (Singapore), Jason Loftus’ Eternal Spring (Canada), Pan Encina’s Eami (Paraguay), Philip Yung’s Where the Wind Blows (Hong Kong), Pan Nalin’s Last Film Show (India), Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl (Ireland) and Martijn de Jong’s Narcosis (Netherlands).

As is true of every year, it’s an incredibly rich and diverse section: thrillers, comedies dramas and even hybrid docs that deal with issues ranging from the global to the private. Regardless of what happens on March 12 next year, all these films have earned their place in the conversation.

Check out today’s schedule and lineup of speakers below, and stick with Deadline all day for our panel coverage, both on the site and on our social media channels using the hashtag #DeadlineContenders. And stay tuned for Monday, when we launch the event streaming site with the complete panel videos.

Contenders Film: International 2022
8 a.m. PT – Opening remarks

MUBI

The Box

Lorenzo Vigas (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Michel Franco (Producer)
Hernán Mendoza (Actor/Producer)

Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook (Co-Writer/Director)

Alcarràs

Carla Simón (Co-Writer/Director/EP)

SUPER

The Quiet Girl

Colm Bairéad (Writer/Director)

Saint Omer

Alice Diop (Co-Writer/Director)

IFC FILMS

Corsage

Vicky Krieps (Actor)

SIDESHOW & JANUS FILMS

EO

Jerzy Skolimowski (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Ewq Piaskowska (Co-Writer/Producer)

A24

Close

Lukas Dhont (Co-Writer/Director)

NETFLIX

All Quiet on the Western Front

Edward Berger (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Felix Kammerer (Actor)
Daniel Brühl (EP/Actor)
James Friend (Cinematographer)

Bardo, A False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Co-Writer/Director/Producer/Co-Editor/Co-Composer)
Daniel Giménez Cacho (Actor)

MORNING BREAK

SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS

Last Film Show

Pan Nalin (Writer/Director/Producer/Production Designer)
Bhavin Rabari (Actor)
Dheer Momaya (Producer)
Siddharth Roy Kapur (Producer)

Cairo Conspiracy

Tarik Saleh (Writer-Director)

MER FILM

War Sailor

Gunnar Vikene (Writer-Director)
Kristofer Joner (Actor)
Pål Sverre Hagen (Actor)

OAK MOTION PICTURE

Narcosis

Martijn de Jong (Co-Writer/Director)
Thekla Reuten (Actor)

AMAZON STUDIOS

Argentina, 1985

Santiago Mitre (Director/Co-Writer/Producer)
Ricardo Darín (Actor/Producer)

LUNCH BREAK

LOFTY SKY ENTERTAINMENT

Eternal Spring

Jason Loftus (Director/Producer)
Daxiong (Animator)
Masha Loftus (EP)

UTOPIA

Holy Spider

Ali Abbasi (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Actor)

REALITY MM STUDIOS

On the Job: The Missing 8

Erik Matti (Director)

BREAKING GLASS PICTURES

Nostalgia

Mario Martone (Co-Writer/Director)
Pierfransesco Favino (Actor)

GIRAFFE PICTURES

Ajoomma

Anthony Chen (Producer)
He Shuming (Co-Writer/Director)

ALL CAPS + KHOOSAT FILMS

Joyland

Saim Sadiq (Writer/Director/Co-Editor)

TALEBOX

Farha

Darin J. Sallam (Writer-Director)
Deema Azar (Producer)
Ayah Jardaneh (Producer)

AFTERNOON BREAK

PROTIM

Klondike

Maryna Er Gorbach (Writer/Director/Producer/Editor)

HUGOFILM FEATURES

A Piece of Sky

Michael Koch (Co-Writer/Director)
Michèle Brand (Actor)

ARRAY RELEASING

Mars One

Gabriel Martins (Writer/Director/Producer/Co-Editor)

CONTENT DIGITAL FILM CO., LTD.

Goddamned Asura

Lou Yi-an (Co-Writer/Director/Co-Editor)
Singing Chen (Co-Writer/Co-Editor)

ALTERED INNOCENCE

Beautiful Beings

Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (Writer/Director)
Sturla Brandth Grøvlen (Cinematographer)

MEI AH ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

Where the Wind Blows

Philip Yung (Writer-Director)

LOUVERTURE FILMS

Eami

Paz Encina (Writer/Director/Producer)
Javier Umpierrez (Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer/Re-Recording Sound Mixer)
Carlos Cortés Navarrete (Sound Mixer)

View this article at Deadline.