A record 61 countries have submitted films for consideration inthe foreign language film category for the 79th Academy Awards.

As previously reported, Finland had submitted Aki Kaurismaki's LightsIn The Dusk, which thedirector subsequently said he wanted to withdraw, claiming his permission tosubmit was not sought.

At time of going to press it was understood that foreign Languagecommittee chair Mark Johnson had begun talks with Kaurismaki to persuade him tochange his mind.

Kazakhstan, ironically in the public eye for its portrayal in thecomedy Borat, submitsa film for the first time - Nomad directed by Sergei Bodrov among others.

Nominations will be announced on Jan 23, 2007 at the Academy'sSamuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles.

The submissions are:

Algeria Days Of Glory (Rachid Bouchareb)
Argentina Family Law (Daniel Burman)
Australia Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer)
Austria You Bet Your Life (Antonin Svoboda)
Bangladesh Forever Flows (Abu Sayeed)
Belgium Someone Else'sHappiness (Fien Troch)
Bolivia American Visa (Juan Carlos Valdivia)
Bosnia and Herzegovina Grbavica (Jasmila Zbanic)
Brazil Cinema, AspirinsAnd Vultures (MarceloGomes)
Bulgaria Monkeys InWinter (Milena Andonova)
Canada Water (Deepa Mehta)
Chile En La Cama (Matiaz Bize)
China Curse Of The GoldenFlower (Zhang Yimou)
Colombia A Ton Of Luck (Rodrigo Triana)
Croatia Libertas (Veljko Bulajic)
Cuba El Benny (Jorge Luis Sanchez)
Czech Republic Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer)
Denmark After The Wedding (Susanne Bier)
Egypt The YacoubianBuilding (Marwan Hamed)
France Avenue Montaigne (Daniele Thompson)
Germany The Lives OfOthers (Florian Henckelvon Donnersmarck)
Greece Chariton's Choir (Grigoris Karantinakis)
Hong Kong The Banquet (Feng Xiaogang)
Hungary White Palms (Szabolcs Hajdu)
Iceland Children (Ragnar Bragason)
India Rang De Basanti (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra)
Indonesia Love For Share (Nia Dinata)
Iran Transit Cafe (Kambozia Partovi)
Iraq Dreams (Mohamed Al-Daradji)
Israel Sweet Mud (Dror Shaul)
Italy Golden Door (Emanuele Crialese)
Japan Hula Girls (Sang-il Lee)
Kazakhstan Nomad (Sergei Bodrov, Talgat Temenov, IvanPasser)
Korea King And The Clown (Lee Jun-ik)
Kyrgyzstan The WeddingChest (Nurbek Egen)
Lebanon Bosta(Philippe Aractingi)
Lithuania Before FlyingBack To Earth (ArunasMatelis)
Macedonia Kontakt (Sergei Stanojkovski)
Mexico Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
Morocco The MoroccanSymphony (Kamal Kamal)
Nepal Basain (Subash Prasad Gajurel)
The Netherlands BlackBook (Paul Verhoeven)Norway Reprise (Joachim Trier)
Peru Madeinusa (Claudia Llosa)
Philippines TheBlossoming Of Maximo Oliveros (Auraeus Solito)
Poland Retrieval (Slawomir Fabicki)
Portugal Alice (Marco Martins)
Puerto Rico Thieves AndLiars (Ricardo MendezMatta)
Romania The Way I Spentthe End Of The World (CatalinMitulescu)
Russia 9th Company (Fyodor Bondarchuk)
Serbia Tomorrow Morning (Oleg Novkovic)
Slovenia Gravehopping (Jan Cvitkovic)
Spain Volver (Pedro Almodovar)
Sweden FalkenbergFarewell (JesperGanslandt)
Switzerland Vitus (Fredi M Murer)
Taiwan Blue Cha Cha (Cheng Wen-tang)
Thailand Ahimsa Stop ToRun (Leo Kittikorn)
Turkey Ice Cream, IScream (Yuksel Aksu)
Ukraine Aurora (Oxana Bayrak)
Venezuela Maroa (Solveig Hoogesteijn)
Vietnam Story Of Pao (Ngo Quang Hai)

The Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on Feb 25, 2007.