The nine-strong shortlist for the best foreign language film Academy Award has been announced, part of the process towards the actual Oscar nomination due to be revealed early next year.
Arguably the most high profile of the shortlisted films are Russia’s Leviathan, directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev, and Ida, from Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski. The former is an anti-Putin fable that won the best screenplay award at Cannes, while the latter, about a novice nun who discovers she is Jewish, beat Leviathan to best film at the European film awards earlier this month. Both have also been nominated in the same category at the Golden Globe awards.
Also on the shortlist, which has been slimmed down from the 83 eligible films, are well-reviewed Cannes entries Timbuktu, from Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, and Damián Szifrón’s Wild Tales, from Argentina. Two others on the list – Estonia’s Tangerines, directed by Zaza Urushadze and Sweden’s Force Majeure, from director Ruben Östlund – have also scored Golden Globe nods. The other three titles are: Georgia’s Corn Island, from director George Ovashvili, Accused from Dutch director Paula van der Oest, and Alberto Arvelo’s The Liberator, from Venezuela.
Six of the shortlist were the result of a vote by Academy members who watched all 83 entries, and three were added by a specially convened committee.
The outcome has left several notable films missing out, including some who were heavily favoured for a nomination at the very least. Principal among these are the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, from Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and the Dardenne brothers’ Two Days, One Night, starring Marion Cotillard. Other suprising omissions include Israel’s Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, which has a Golden Globe nomination, Cannes prix de jury winner Mommy, and Norte, the End of History from the Philippines.
After a final selection process involving another vote by Academy committees, the nomination list will be announced on 15 January.
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