Nine Foreign Films Advance to Next Round of Oscar Race

Of the 85 foreign films submitted to the Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards, nine have advanced on to the next round of voting. Unfortunately, the Greek film “Chevalier” by Athina Rachel Tsangari was not selected for the next round.

There were some surprises in the other films left out of the race as well, including Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea”, the Italian-produced refugee documentary that won the Berlin Golden Bear.

Here are the films that did make the cut:

Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;
Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;
Denmark, “Land of Mine,” Martin Zandvliet, director;
Germany, “Toni Erdmann,” Maren Ade, director;
Iran, “The Salesman,” Asghar Farhadi, director;
Norway, “The King’s Choice,” Erik Poppe, director;
Russia, “Paradise,” Andrei Konchalovsky, director;
Sweden, “A Man Called Ove,” Hannes Holm, director;
Switzerland, “My Life as a Zucchini,” Claude Barras, director.

However, not all of the movies will be nominated at the 89th Academy Awards; the second phase of voting before the Oscars, which takes place from January 13 to 15, consists of special committees in New York, Los Angeles and London viewing the nine contenders and casting their ballots for their preferred five films.

If you want to get a quick glimpse of all previous winners in the Foreign Language Film category, view the poster gallery set up by the Academy in the run up to this year’s Academy Awards.