With the October 1st deadline fast approaching, the field for the Academy Award’s Best International Feature Film is narrowing. Only a few key contenders from nations like Argentina, Italy, Mexico, and the United Kingdom remain, and a clear top five has emerged, with NEON-distributed films dominating the competition. If you were to ask me who is the frontrunner I’d say it’s a coin-toss between this year’s Palme d’Or winner in Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (repping France) and this year’s Silver Lion winner in Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab – however for The Voice of Hind Rajab to stand any chance it needs to lock in a distributor sometime soon – as the critical support, trophyware, and an impressive producer team aren’t enough in this climate.
We can include Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent (Brazil), Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Norway) and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (South Korea) among the favorites – all of these films will be on year-end critic groups, Golden Globes, and Oscar radars.
Of the five titles that will likely be part of the shortlist of 15 finalists (announced December 16th), we see Mubi’s Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski (Germany), Janus Films’ The Love That Remains by Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland), NEON’s Sirāt by Oliver Laxe (Spain) and two films from this year’s Cannes Critics’s Week section in Cineverse’s A Useful Ghost by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Thailand) and Netflix’s Left-Handed Girl by Shih-Ching Tsou (Taiwan). What is your top ten?
Armenia: My Armenian Phantoms / Tamara Stepanyan
Austria: Peacock / Bernhard Wenger
Azerbaijan: Taghiyev: Oil, / Zaur Gasimli
Belgium: Young Mothers / Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Bosnia and Herezegovina: Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny / Jasmila Zbanic
Brazil: The Secret Agent / Kleber Mendonca Filho
Bulgaria: Tarika / Milko Lazarov
Cambodia: Tenement / Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea
Canada: The Things You Kill / Alireza Khatami
Chile: The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo / Diego Cespedes
Colombia: “A Poet / Simon Mesa Soto
Costa Rica: The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener / Juan Manuel Fernandez
Croatia: Fiume o morte! / Igor Bezinovic
Czech Republic: I’m Not Everything I Want to Be / Klara Tasovska
Dominican Republic: Pepe / Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias
Ecuador: Chuzalongo / Diego Ortuno
Egypt: Happy Birthday / Sarah Goher
Estonia: Rolling Papers / Meel Paliale
Finland: 100 Litres of Gold / Teemu Nikki
France: It Was Just an Accident / Jafar Panahi
Georgia: Panopticon / George Sikharulidze
Germany: Sound of Falling / Mascha Schilinski
Hungary: Orphan / Laszlo Nemes
Iceland: The Love That Remains / Hlynur Pálmason
Indonesia: Sore: Wife From the Future / Yandy Laurens
Iran: Cause of Death: Unknown / Ali Zarnegar
Iraq: The President’s Cake / Hasan Hadi
Ireland: Sanatorium / Gar O’Rourke
Israel: The Sea / Shai Carmeli-Pollak
Japan: Kokuho / Lee Sang-il
Jordan: All That’s Left of You / Cherin Dabis
Kyrgyzstan: Black Red Yellow / Aktan Arym Kubat
Latvia: Dog of God / Lauris Abele and Raitis Abele
Lithuania: Southern Chronicles / Ignas Miškinis
Montenegro: The Tower of Strength / Nikola Vukcevic
Morocco: Calle Malaga / Maryam Touzani
Nepal: Anjila / Milan Chams
Netherlands: Reedland / Sven Bresser
North Macedonia: The Tale of Silyan / Tamara Kotseva
Norway: Sentimental Value / Joachim Trier
Palestine: Palestine 36, Annemarie Jacir
Panama: Beloved Tropic / Ana Endara
Papua New Guinea: Papa Buka / Bijukumar Damodaran
Paraguay: Under the Flags, the Sun / Juanjo Pereira
Peru: Motherland / Marco Panatonic
Philippines: Magellan / Lav Diaz
Poland: Franz / Agnieszka Holland
Portugal: Banzo / Margarida Cardoso
Romania: Traffic / Teodora Mihai
Slovakia: Father / Tereza Nvotova
Slovenia: Little Trouble Girls / Urška Djukić
South Korea: No Other Choice / Park Chan-wook
Spain: Sirāt / Oliver Laxe
Sweden: Eagles of the Republic / Tarik Saleh
Switzerland: Late Shift / Petra Volpe
Taiwan: Left-Handed Girl / Shih-Ching Tsou
Thailand: A Useful Ghost / Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Tunisia: The Voice of Hind Rajab / Kaouther Ben Hania
Turkey: One of Those Days When Hemme Dies / Murat Firatoglu
Ukraine: 2000 Meters to Andriivka / Mstyslav Chernov
Uruguay: Don’t You Let Me Go / Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge
