Parasite, Les Misérables and Atlantics are among the 10 films to make it on to the Academy’s international feature film shortlist, announced on Monday afternoon (16).
The Americas and Middle East miss out completely in the category this year, after Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexican drama Roma won the award last season in its final iteration as the foreign language Oscar. Ironically it was Cuarón’s acceptance speech that inadvertently played a part in convincing Academy senior brass they needed to rename the category.
There is also no love for Scandinavian submissions, while Eastern Europe dominates the list with five films.
Front-runner Parasite, which Neon distributes in the US and has grossed $20.4m, looks likely to become the first film from South Korea to earn a nomination.
The full shortlist appears below in alphabetical order by country:
The Painted Bird, Czech Republic;
Truth And Justice, Estonia;
Les Misérables, France;
Those Who Remained, Hungary;
Honeyland, North Macedonia;
Corpus Christi, Poland;
Beanpole, Russia;
Atlantics, Senegal;
Parasite, South Korea; and
Pain And Glory, Spain.
Ninety-one films were eligible in the category after two were disqualifed - the submissions from Nigeria and Afghanistan.
Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round. They must have viewed the submitted films theatrically and met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. Their seven choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s international feature film award executive committee, constitute the shortlist.
In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 10 shortlisted films in order to cast a ballot. The Academy will announce the five nominees on January 13, 2020.
Nominations voting runs from January 2-7, 2020. The Academy awards take place in Hollywood on February 9, 2020.
Click here for Monday’s other Academy shortlist announcements.
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