It’s almost time for the Awards season to begin. With festivals starting and finishing nearly every week, directors, actors and studios all over are out to promote their films. Each year, countries from all over the world submit a film to be considered for nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language Picture.
This year, there are some big films in the mix. One to look out for is China’s submission, a film titled The Flowers Of War, which stars last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner Christian Bale. The film follows the 1937 invasion of the Japanese Imperial Army in Nanking. The man at the helm, director Zhang Yimou, has previously been nominated twice in this category, which makes him almost a shoe in to take one of the spots this year, with the picture having a $90 million budget.
Also in the mix is a film starring Noomi Rapace. The Swedish entry, Pernilla August‘s Beyond (Svinalängorna), is sure to attract some attention with everybody’s favourite Swedish actress and her ex-husband, Ola Rapace, staring in the drama, which has was nominated for 8 Guldbagge awards, which are Sweden’s equivalent to Oscars, and winning two for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.
Another film which stands a very high chance at taking the award is Wim Wender’s Pina. I saw the outstanding trailer for this musical dance piece and it completely drew me in. This film has been generating buzz and rave reviews from nearly every screening and it will definitely be one to watch out for.
You tend to find that many of the best foreign language best picture Oscar winners are forgotten, which is a shame, as most of these films turn out to be far better than the American remakes that come out five years later.
Check out the full list of Best Foreign Language Picture nomination submissions for the Oscars below and tell us what your pick is.
- Albania – The Forgiveness of Blood, directed by Joshua Marston
- Austria – Breathing, directed by Karl Markovics
- Belgium – Bullhead, directed by Michaël R. Roskam
- Bosnia and Herzegovina – Belvedere, directed by Ahmed Imamović
- Brazil – Tropa de Elite 2, directed by José Padilha
- Bulgaria – Tilt, directed by Viktor Chouchkov
- Canada – Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Falardeau
- China – Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou
- Chile – Violeta, directed by Andres Wood
- Colombia – The Colors of the Mountain, directed by Carlos César Arbeláez
- Finland – Le Havre, directed by Aki Kaurismaki
- France – Declaration of War, directed by Valérie Donzelli
- Germany – Pina, directed by Wim Wenders
- Greece – Attenberg, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
- Hong Kong – A Simple Life, directed by Ann Hui
- Hungary – The Turin Horse, directed by Bela Tarr
- Iceland – Volcano, directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson
- Iran – A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi
- Israel – Footnote, directed by Joseph Cedar
- Ireland – As If I Am Not There, directed by Juanita Wilson
- Japan – Postcard, directed by Kaneto Shindō
- Lebanon – Where Do We Go Now?, directed by Nadine Labaki
- Lithuania – Back to Your Arms, directed by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas
- Mexico – Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo
- Morocco – Omar Killed Me, directed by Roschdy Zem
- Netherlands – Sonny Boy, directed by Maria Peters
- Norway – Happy, Happy, directed by Anne Sewitsky
- Peru – October, directed by Daniel Vega Vidal
- Phillippines – The Woman in the Septic Tank, directed by Marlon Rivera
- Poland – In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland
- Portugal – Jose and Pilar, directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
- Romania – Morgen, directed by Marian Crisan
- Russia – Burnt By The Sun 2: Citadel, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
- Serbia – Montevideo, God Bless You!, directed by Dragan Bjelogrlić
- Slovakia – Gypsy, directed by Martin Sulik
- South Korea – The Front Line, directed by Jang Hun
- Sweden – Beyond, directed by Pernilla August
- Taiwan – Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, directed by Wei Te-Sheng
- Venezuela – The Rumble of the Stones, directed by Alejandro Bellame Palacios
- Vietnam – Thang Long Aspiration, directed by Lưu Trọng Ninh
