The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has posted its list of submissions for the Foreign Language Film Award category after eligibility concerns forced committee members to delay publication by one week. While the 54-strong list - a record number of submissions that beats last year's mark by three - includes for the first time an entry from Afghanistan in the form of Jawed Wassel's FireDancer, it is also distinguished by its omissions.

The UK's original Hindi-language entry The Warrior was rejected and has been replaced by Tim Lyn's Eldra, a Welsh-language coming-of-age tale that won the Film Festival of Wales FilmFour Audience Award. An Academy spokesperson said committee members voted against The Warrior because Hindi is not a language indigenous to the UK and the film was not about the Hindu community in the UK. Hong Kong will not have an entry after The Touch, an adventure-romance that was produced by and stars Michelle Yeoh, was rejected because most of the dialogue is in English and not Mandarin. Palestine's acclaimed drama Divine Intervention was not accepted because Palestine is not recognised as a bona fide nation by the Academy despite having a non-voting seat on the United Nations.

Apart from Afghanistan, two other countries have been accepted for the first time: Bangladesh with Tareque Masud's The Clay Bird and Chad with Mahamat Saleh Haroun's Abouna.

The Foreign Language Film Award Committee, chaired by producer Mark Johnson, will screen all entries starting on Dec 4. The five nominations will be announced on Feb 11, 2003 and the 75th Academy Awards take place on March 23, 2003.

The 2002 foreign language submissions are:

Afghanistan FireDancer (Jawed Wassel, director)

Algeria Rachida (Yamina Bachir-Chouikh)

Argentina Kamchatka (Marcelo Pineyro)

Austria Gebirtig (Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik)

Bangladesh The Clay Bird (Tareque Masud)

Belgium The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Brazil City Of God (Fernando Meirelles)

Bulgaria Warming Up Yesterday's Lunch (Kostadin Bonev)

Canada Un Crabe Dans La Tete (Andre Turpin)

Chad Abouna (Mahamat Saleh Haroun)

Chile Ogu Y Mampato En Rapa Nui (Alejandro Rojas)

China Hero (Zhang Yimou)

Colombia The Invisible Children (Lisandro Duque Naranjo)

Croatia Fine Dead Girls (Dalibor Matanic)

Cuba Nothing More (Juan Carlos Cremata)

Czech Republic Wild Bees (Bohdan Slama)

Denmark Open Hearts (Susanne Bier)

Egypt The Secret of the Young Girl (Magdy Ahmed Aly)

Finland The Man without a Past (Aki Kaurismaki)

France 8 Women (Francois Ozon)

Germany Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link)

Greece The Only Journey of His Life (Lakis Papastathis)

Hungary Hukkle (Gyorgy Palfi)

Iceland The Sea (Baltasar Kormakur)

India Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansail)

Indonesia Ca-bau-kan (Nia diNata)

Iran I'm Taraneh, 15 (Rassul Sadr-Ameli)

Israel Broken Wings (Nir Bergman)

Italy Pinocchio (Roberto Benigni)

Japan Out (Hideyuki Hirayama)

Korea Oasis (Lee Chang-dong)

Lebanon When Maryam Spoke Out (Assad Fouladkar)

Luxembourg Dead Man's Hand (Laurent Brandenburger and Philippe Boon)

Mexico The Crime of Father Amaro (Carlos Carrera)

Netherlands Zus & Zo (Paula van der Oest)

Norway Hold My Heart (Trygve Allister Diesen)

Philippines Small Voices (Gil M. Portes)

Poland Edi (Piotr Trzaskalski)

Portugal O Delfim (Fernando Lopes)

Romania Philanthropy (Nae Caranfil)

Russia House of Fools (Andrei Konchalovsky)

Slovakia Cruel Joys (Juraj Nvota)

Slovenia Head Noise (Andrej Kosak)

Spain Los Lunes Al Sol (Fernando Leon de Arano)

Sweden Lilja 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson)

Switzerland Aime Ton Pere (Jacob Berger)

Taiwan The Best of Times (Chang Tso-Chi)

Thailand Mon-rak Transistor (Pen-ek Ratanaruang)

Tunisia The Magic Box (Rida Behi)

Turkey 9 (Umit Unal)

United Kingdom Eldra (Tim Lyn)

Uruguay Corazon de Fuego (Diego Arsuaga)

Venezuela The Archangel's Feather (Luis Manzo)

Yugoslavia Labyrinth (Miroslav Leki)