2012 Oscar Foreign Language Film Submissions - Final

These are the sixty-three (63) films that will compete for the Best Foreign Language film in the 84th Academy Awards.

Albania: Amnistia  (Amnesty), Bujar Alimani
Argentina: Aballay, el hombre sin miedo (Aballay), Fernando Spiner
Austria: Atmen (Breathing), Karl Markovics
Belgium: Rundskop (Bullhead), Michaël R. Roskam
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Belvedere, Ahmed Imamović
Brazil: Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within), José Padilha
Bulgaria: Тилт Tilt, Viktor Chuchkov Jr.
Canada: Monsieur Lazhar, Philippe Falardeau
Chile: Violeta Se Fue a los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Andrés Wood
China: 金陵十三釵 (The Flowers of War), Zhang Yimou
Colombia: Los Colores de la Montaña (The Colors of the Mountain), Carlos César Arbeláez
Croatia: Sedamdeset i dva dana (72 days), Danilo Serbedzija
Cuba: Habanastation, Ian Padrón
Czech Republic: Alois Nebel, Tomás Lunák (animated film)
Denmark: SuperClásico, Ole Christian Madsen
Dominican Republic: La Hija Natural (Love Child), Leticia Tonos
Egypt: الشوق El-Shouq (Lust), Khaled El-Hagar
Estonia: Kirjad Inglile (Letters to Angel), Sulev Keedus
Finland: Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki
France: La guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), Valérie Donzelli (Good movie, a lot better than what I imagined; a little bit uneven, last half not as good as first)
Georgia: Chantrapras, Otar Iosseliani
Germany: Pina, Wim Wenders (is a documentary - NO, this is no doc even when documents dance, it's really BEAUTIFUL to watch plus you'll feel lots of emotions! Fantastic film.)
Greece: Attenberg, Athina Rachel Tsangari (A strange movie/story yet was fascinating for me.)
Hong Kong: 桃姐 Tao jie (A Simple Life), Ann Hui
Hungary: A Torinói ló (The Turin Horse), Béla Tarr
Iceland: Eldfjall (Volcano), Rúnar Rúnarsson
India: ആദാമിന്റെ മകൻ അബു Adaminte Makan Abu (Abu, Son of Adam), Salim Ahamed
Indonesia: Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah (Under the Protection of Ka'Bah), Hanny R Saputra
Iran: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi (Very Good movie, excellent essay on normal life, bravo Master Farhadi!)
Ireland: As If I Am Not There, Juanita Wilson  (Very HARD-to-watch story in a good movie with good performances which makes film harder to watch.)
Israel: הערת שוליים (Footnote), Joseph Cedar
Italy: Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese
Japan: 一枚のハガキ Ich-mai no Hagaki (Postcard), Kaneto Shindō
Kazakhstan: Возвращение в "А" (Return to "A"), Egor Konchalovsky
Lebanon: وهلّأ لوين؟ Wo Hallah La Wen? (Where Do We Go Now?), Nadine Labaki
Lithuania: Kai Apkabinsiu Tave (Back in Your Arms), Kristijonas Vildžiūnas
Macedonia: Панкот не е мртов Pankot ne e mrtov (Punk's Not Dead), Vladimir Blazevski
Mexico: Miss Bala, Gerado Naranjo (It's an okay movie less violent than I imagined whilst easier to watch)
Morocco: Omar m'a tuer (Omar Killed Me), Roschdy Zem
Netherlands: Sonny Boy, Maria Peters
New Zealand: O Le Tulafale (The Orator), Tusi Tamasese
Norway: Sykt lykkelig (Happy, Happy), Anne Sewitsky (Interesting human behavior essay, dark funny)
Peru: Octubre (October), Diego and Daniel Vega
Philippines: Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank), Marlon Rivera
Poland: W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland
Portugal: José e Pilar (Jose and Pilar), Miguel Goncalves Mendes (documentary)
Romania: Morgen, Marian Crisan
Russia: Утомлённые солнцем 2: Цитадель Utomlyonnye Solntsem 2 (Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel), Nikita Mikhalkov
Serbia: Montevideo, bog te video (Montevideo: Taste of a Dream), Dragan Bjelogrlić
Singapore: Tatsumi, Erick Khoo
Slovakia: Cigán (Gypsy), Martin Šulík
South Africa: Shookheid (Beauty), Oliver Hermanus
South Korea: 고지전 Go-ji-jeon (The Front Line), Jang Hun
Spain: Pa Negre (Black Bread), Agustí Villaronga (An okay movie with an okay story, nothing special)
Sweden: Svinalängorna (Beyond), Pernilla August
Switzerland: Giochi d'estate (Summer Games), Rolando Colla
Taiwan: 賽德克．巴萊 Saideke Balai (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale), Wei Te-Sheng
Thailand: คนโขน Kon Khon, Sarunyu Wongkrachang
Turkey: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
United Kingdom: Patagonia, Marc Evans
Uruguay: La Casa Muda (The Silent House), Gustavo Hernández
Venezuela: El Rumor de las Piedras (The Rumble of the Stones), Alejandro Bellame
Vietnam: Khát vọng Thăng Long (The Prince and the Pagoda Boy), Lưu Trọng Ninh

Watch 62 trailers @MOC Poland doesn't have trailer yet.

Updates Comments

An unexpected update but suddenly the AMPAS Best Foreign Language Film Award Screening Schedule became available and with some unexpected surprises as seems Slovenia's silent Circus Fantasticus is NOT in the list that has 63 films (two less than in previous years).

As expected Albania changed their submission, Georgia has the expected submission, and new to the list are Estonia, Indonesia and UK. Not expected but predictable Russia kept their original submission and in a positive turn of events, the Academy allowed the Dominican Republic submission.

Between today and tomorrow the Academy has to publish their official list and ONLY then this post will become final.

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10/4

The last update before final has 58 countries submitting a film that had some kind of promotion in local media or industry media; then add one more (Georgia) that haven't been able to find info to make the total to 59, odd number, isn't? Should be 60, but up-to-this moment there are no new announcements. I still expect the number to reach 65 and soon we will learn the final list that the Academy will release within the following two weeks.

This year I have the impression that there are TOO many good films, some I have seen so know they're good (a few exceptions that I don't understand how they made it to this list) and other haven't seen them yet but are from directors I highly appreciate as great filmmakers.

I know is kind of crazy (so early) to speculate about the films that will make it to the shortlist of nine, but here is my nine film wishlist and I really hope they make it.

Germany with Pina, Finland with Le Havre, Iran with A Separation, China with The Flowers of War, Lebanon with Where do we go now?, Mexico with Miss Bala, Turkey with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Sweden with Beyond, and Iceland with Volcano. As a matter of fact today my Oscar goes to Pina!!! Yes, what a marvelous film truly deserves the award.

For a change there is one film that I'm not really looking forward to see, France's submission as story, style and the I-can't-forget reference of being in La Semaine de la Critique, make film not attractive to me.

Soon this post will become final and we will know if Russia changed the submission, Albania retains its submission, and Georgia submitted a French production -which is most likely as Morroco did it too.

Cheers!!!

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9/23

A new update as today we reached the 40th mark with up-to-this-moment forty (40)films. Past years there has been 65 submissions, so we can estimate that we still get around 25 more.

But what really calls my attention is the many festival movies that are being submitted; from Cannes 2010 there are 2, Cannes 2011 - 7, Venice 2010 - 2, Venice 2011 - 1, and Berlin 2011 - 3; for a total of 15 films out of 40. Also there are many (yes, many WHEN we compare it to previous years) that have gay or lesbian interest and not often in this list we have the Queer Palm winner, so I'm glad for this -small- milestone in LGTB cinema.

In about a week is the submission deadline, so this coming week should be also with many announcements.

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9/14

As list will grow larger soon had to do the first update to have the post above all the others (lol!) as not everyone knows that in the second column there is ALWAYS a link to this post for the easiest access.

I'm very puzzled with Iran's announcement a few days back, seems was not official -that's why they deleted all the news-; then Variety confirmed the news, but today in Iranian press the news that there are three films shortlisted. I do believe the Golden Bear winner deserves the honor, but let's see what Iranian authorities finally decide.

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9/1

The American Award Season is “around the corner” so it’s no surprise to find my first movie submitted to Oscar 2012. I say my first as imagine that surely now that I’ll start to look for information I’ll find more, but for today this is the first confirmed movie submitted to Oscar.

So my favorite yearly post begins today with many more submissions and one film with lesbian interest... fantastic!