Hou Hsiao-hsien’s beguiling take on the wuxia form will represent Taiwan in the 2016 Academy Awards, while Anna Muylaert’s The Second Mother will reprsents Brazil and Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy will fly the flag for Austria.

the assassin 2

The Assassin plays here and earned Hsiao-hsien the best director prize in Cannes. The story tells of a ninth century kidnapped girl who returns to the land of her birth after years of special training by a nun.

Well Go USA will release in the US on October 16.

The Second Mother premiered in Sundance and won the Panorama Audience Award in Berlin. The story centres on a live-in housekeeper in Sao Paolo whose life is thrown into disarray when her estanged daughter shows up. Oscilloscope holds US rights.

Goodnight Mommy premiered in Venice 2014 and tells of two children who move into a new home with their mother after she has face-changing surgery. Radius-TWC holds US rights.