The Spanish Film Academy has named Montxo Armendariz's Obabaas its entry to the foreign language category of the Academy Awards.

Obaba inaugurated the San Sebastian International FilmFestival earlier this month and is released in Spain by Alta Films. Thedrama,an adaptation of a prize-wining book set in the Basque Country,hasreceived solid praise from Spanish critics.

Armendariz was nominated previously for the foreign-languageOscar in 1997 for his coming-of-age drama Secrets Of The Heart (Secretos DelCorazon).

Private by Saverio Costanzo has been selected as Italy's candidate.

A hard-hitting drama about the Middle East conflict, Private focuses on an Israeli patrol who takes over the home of a Palestinian family in order to establish an observation point in the Occupied Territories.

Costanzo's debut feature has won a host of international awards over the past year, including the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival. It has also been sold to over 22 countries, including the US where it was released by Avatar Films.

Italy's Oscar candidate was chosen for the first time by a select group of 15 industry professionals, including Bernardo Bertolucci.

Meanwhile, the Mongolian Academy of Motion Pictures haschosen Byambasuren Davaa's The Cave Of The Yellow Dog as its candidatefor the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

The Cave Of The Yellow Dog received its worldpremiere at the Munich Film Festival in June, competed last week in the NewDirectors competition at San Sebastian and will now screen at festivals inTokyo, Pusan, Warsaw, the Hamptons, Bratislavam Goeteborg and Oulu, amongothers. The X Verleih release has posted Euros 1m in box-office takings atGerman cinemas since opening at the end of July.

Mongolian-born Davaa was the co-director of last year's hitdocumentary The Story Of The Weeping Camel which received a nominationin the Best Documentary category at the 2005 Oscars.

Singapore has submitted its first entry ever for the bestforeign-language film category with Eric Khoo's Be With Me chosen by theSingapore Film Commission.

Produced by Khoo's Zhao Wei Films and shot on HD, thepicture weaves together three love stories as inspired by the life of TheresaChan, a blind and deaf Singapore woman. It is almost a silent film with only afew minutes of dialogue.

Bavaria Film picked up the international sales rights to thefilm, which opened the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes this year.

The film is also the first local acquisition for WarnerBros' Singapore branch. Currently playing in local theatres, it has collectedS$170,737 on five prints after three weeks of release.

(Jennifer Green, Melanie Rodier, Martin Blaney and Silvia Wong contributed to this story)