Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration for the Oscar in the foreign language film category for the 91st Academy Awards. That number is down slightly from the record 92 films that were submitted last year. For the first time, Malawi, which submitted Shemu Joyah's The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, which submitted Rahmatou Keita's The Wedding Ring, have entered films.
The submissions include high-profile titles like Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, the Mexican entry which is also expected to be a best picture contender; Kore-eda Hirokazu's Shoplifters, the Japanese entry which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival; the Cannes Jury Prize winner, Nadine Labaki's Capernaum, from Lebanon; and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War, from Poland, which won the best director prize at Cannes.
France opted to enter Emmanuel Finkiel's World War II drama Memoirs of War, while Spain submitted Javier Fesser's Champions, about a basketball team with intellectual disabilities; Italy offered Matteo Garron's revenge drama Dogman; Germany submitted the love story Never Look Away, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who had a previous Oscar winner with 2006's The Lives of Others; and Hungary entered the period drama Sunset, directed by Laszlo Nemes, whose 2015 Son of Saul was also an Oscar winner.
Since submissions don't have to be in a country's dominant language, the U.K. has submitted Rungano Nyoni's I Am Not A Witch, which is set in Zambia, while Australia is represented by Benjamin Gilmour's Jirga, which is set in Afghanistan.
Nominations will be announced Jan. 22, and the Oscars themselves will be broadcast live by ABC from the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on Feb. 24.
The 2018 submissions are below.
- Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;
- Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;
- Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director;
- Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director;
- Australia, “Jirga,” Benjamin Gilmour, director;
- Austria, “The Waldheim Waltz,” Ruth Beckermann, director;
- Bangladesh, “No Bed of Roses,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
- Belarus, “Crystal Swan,” Darya Zhuk, director;
- Belgium, “Girl,” Lukas Dhont, director;
- Bolivia, “The Goalkeeper,” Rodrigo “Gory” Patiño, director;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Never Leave Me,” Aida Begić, director;
- Brazil, “The Great Mystical Circus,” Carlos Diegues, director;
- Bulgaria, “Omnipresent,” Ilian Djevelekov, director;
- Cambodia, “Graves without a Name,” Rithy Panh, director;
- Canada, “Family Ties,” Sophie Dupuis, director;
- Chile, “…And Suddenly the Dawn,” Silvio Caiozzi, director;
- China, “Hidden Man,” Jiang Wen, director;
- Colombia, “Birds of Passage,” Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra, directors;
- Costa Rica, “Medea,” Alexandra Latishev, director;
- Croatia, “The Eighth Commissioner,” Ivan Salaj, director;
- Czech Republic, “Winter Flies,” Olmo Omerzu, director;
- Denmark, “The Guilty,” Gustav Möller, director;
- Dominican Republic, “Cocote,” Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, director;
- Ecuador, “A Son of Man,” Jamaicanoproblem, director;
- Egypt, “Yomeddine,” A.B. Shawky, director;
- Estonia, “Take It or Leave It,” Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo, director;
- Finland, “Euthanizer,” Teemu Nikki, director;
- France, “Memoir of War,” Emmanuel Finkiel, director;
- Georgia, “Namme,” Zaza Khalvashi, director;
- Germany, “Never Look Away,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director;
- Greece, “Polyxeni,” Dora Masklavanou, director;
- Hong Kong, “Operation Red Sea,” Dante Lam, director;
- Hungary, “Sunset,” László Nemes, director;
- Iceland, “Woman at War,” Benedikt Erlingsson, director;
- India, “Village Rockstars,” Rima Das, director;
- Indonesia, “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts,” Mouly Surya, director;
- Iran, “No Date, No Signature,” Vahid Jalilvand, director;
- Iraq, “The Journey,” Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji, director;
- Israel, “The Cakemaker,” Ofir Raul Graizer, director;
- Italy, “Dogman,” Matteo Garrone, director;
- Japan, “Shoplifters,” Hirokazu Kore-eda, director;
- Kazakhstan, “Ayka,” Sergey Dvortsevoy, director;
- Kenya, “Supa Modo,” Likarion Wainaina, director;
- Kosovo, “The Marriage,” Blerta Zeqiri, director;
- Latvia, “To Be Continued,” Ivars Seleckis, director;
- Lebanon, “Capernaum,” Nadine Labaki, director;
- Lithuania, “Wonderful Losers: A Different World,” Arunas Matelis, director;
- Luxembourg, “Gutland,” Govinda Van Maele, director;
- Macedonia, “Secret Ingredient,” Gjorce Stavreski, director;
- Malawi, “The Road to Sunrise,” Shemu Joyah, director;
- Mexico, “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón, director;
- Montenegro, “Iskra,” Gojko Berkuljan, director;
- Morocco, “Burnout,” Nour-Eddine Lakhmari, director;
- Nepal, “Panchayat,” Shivam Adhikari, director;
- Netherlands, “The Resistance Banker,” Joram Lürsen, director;
- New Zealand, “Yellow Is Forbidden,” Pietra Brettkelly, director;
- Niger, “The Wedding Ring,” Rahmatou Keïta, director;
- Norway, “What Will People Say,” Iram Haq, director;
- Pakistan, “Cake,” Asim Abbasi, director;
- Palestine, “Ghost Hunting,” Raed Andoni, director;
- Panama, “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” Abner Benaim, director;
- Paraguay, “The Heiresses,” Marcelo Martinessi, director;
- Peru, “Eternity,” Oscar Catacora, director;
- Philippines, “Signal Rock,” Chito S. Roño, director;
- Poland, “Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski, director;
- Portugal, “Pilgrimage,” João Botelho, director;
- Romania, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” Radu Jude, director;
- Russia, “Sobibor,” Konstantin Khabensky, director;
- Serbia, “Offenders,” Dejan Zecevic, director;
- Singapore, “Buffalo Boys,” Mike Wiluan, director;
- Slovakia, “The Interpreter,” Martin Šulík, director;
- Slovenia, “Ivan,” Janez Burger, director;
- South Africa, “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, director;
- South Korea, “Burning,” Lee Chang-dong, director;
- Spain, “Champions,” Javier Fesser, director;
- Sweden, “Border,” Ali Abbasi, director;
- Switzerland, “Eldorado,” Markus Imhoof, director;
- Taiwan, “The Great Buddha+,” Hsin-Yao Huang, director;
- Thailand, “Malila The Farewell Flower,” Anucha Boonyawatana, director;
- Tunisia, “Beauty and the Dogs,” Kaouther Ben Hania, director;
- Turkey, “The Wild Pear Tree,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
- Ukraine, “Donbass,” Sergei Loznitsa, director;
- United Kingdom, “I Am Not a Witch,” Rungano Nyoni, director;
- Uruguay, “Twelve-Year Night,” Álvaro Brechner, director;
- Venezuela, “The Family,” Gustavo Rondón Córdova, director;
- Vietnam, “The Tailor,” Buu Loc Tran, Kay Nguyen, directors;
- Yemen, “10 Days before the Wedding,” Amr Gamal, director.