ICYMI - Eligibility for the 95th Oscars (and two noticeable absences)
Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 1:00PM 
We usually share the official "reminder" list for Academy voters but it's been so busy we forgot. Apologies. If you'd like to look it up it's here. 301 films are eligible for Best Picture this year. This list is a handy guide each year to clear up any doubts that remain about what actually got released in theaters, and in which calendar year (given that many films don't "qualify" until the year after their festival bows, this year that's the case for Benediction, The Cursed, and Pleasure, among others, which all first premiered in 2021). All of this becomes harder and harder to track each year with theatrical releases barely advertised and in theaters for increasingly short durations.
The biggest area of curiousity for us, is seeing which of the annual submissions for Best International Feature Film are eligible outside of that race and which were released but didn't submit for general eligibility...
Of the 90+ submissions for that category, only 15 are eligible in all relevant Oscar categories due to one-week qualifying or regular theatrical releases (if they're in bold they made the finalist list for Best International Feature Film)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
- Argentina 1985 (Argentina)
- Bardo (Mexico)
- Carmen (Malta) - was disqualified in the International race but still eligible elsewhere
- Close (Belgium)
- Corsage (Austria)
- Decistion to Leave (South Korea)
- EO (Poland)
- Eternal Spring (Canada)
- Holy Spider (Denmark)
- Last Film Show (India)
- The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
- Return to Seoul (Cambodia)
- Saint Omer (France)
- You Won't Be Alone (Australia)
So from the 15 finalists in Best International Feature Film at the 95th Oscars, only Morocco's The Blue Caftan, Pakistan's Joyland and Sweden's Cairo Conspiracy are not eligible in all relevant Oscar categories. If either of those three are nominated for the Oscar, they will NOT be eligible next year in other categories once they finally see US release.
TWO AMAZING FILMS THAT WERE RELEASED BUT ARE NOT ELIGIBLE
This list of eligible productions each year also reminds us that not all films submit paperwork to the Academy to be eligible across the board. Finland's Girl Picture definitely got a theatrical release in 2022 (first hand knowledge since we saw it in a movie theater with a regular non-festival paying audience) but is not on the eligiblity list for Best Picture. Another example is France's Happening, which didn't hit US theaters until 2022 after not being chosen as France's Oscar submission in 2021. It's a real pity that that this great film (which you've heard us rave about) didn't submit for this year in all categories given the awards momentum they did have; Happening won the Gotham award in November and just nabbed a DGA "First Time Feature" nomination this week. As City of God proved to us back in 2002/2003, not being nominated for Best International Feature Film in one year is not always the end to the Oscar story for international features.
Another fantastic film that got caught between two years was Austria's Great Freedom which was a finalist for Best International Feature Film last season but not nominated in the end. It was then theatrically released in 2022 but is not eligible this season.
Reader Comments (2)
Very disappointed about both Girl Picture and Happening, not either had much of a shot anyway. But they're both such terrific films that deserve attention. I actually saw Happening all by myself in a screening room, which I think was an okay experience for that of all films.
Argentina's Son of the Bride was nominated for Best Foreign Language film in 2001/2002. The following year it was released in the US but was not eligible. I believe Norma Aleandro would have stood a chance of a Supporting Actress nod.
The same thing happened with The Secret in Their Eyes, which won the BFLF award in 2009/2010. If it had been released in the US that very same year, surely it would have gotten additional nominations. Who knows? Ricardo Darín? Juan José Campanella?