Deadline is up for Oscar's Best International Film submissions

by Nathaniel R

KINGS OF THE WORLD, Colombia's Oscar submission

Today, October 3rd, is the deadline for participating countries to get their Oscar submissions in for the Best International Feature Film category. We've mentioned before that the Academy (wrongly) chucked their longstanding tradition of publicly announcing the entire longlist for Best International Feature Film last season... if they don't release it again this year we might not know for certain for a few days or even a few weeks what is exactly on the list they're considering in the first round of voting. They'll narrow the list down to 15 films on December 21st, 2022 and then announce the actual nominations on January 24th, 2023.  As of now we know of 81 countries that announced plans to submit a particular film and you can read about all of them on the charts. 

If you've been playing along here with each article a shorter list of the last six films to be announced is after the jump...

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"Holy Spider" and other interesting updates to Best International Feature Film

by Nathaniel R

"Holy Spider" will be released in the US, dates TBA

Lots to tell you about today in the Best International Feature Film race. We are just six days away from the deadline for countries to submit their representative film for consideration at the upcoming Oscars but we know one country that won't be submitting and that's Russia since they're boycotting us given which side we fall on in their war on Ukraine.

We generally know most of the list before that deadline due to press releases from all around the world. But not all. There are usually about 90ish entries and we have 70 announced thus far. You might remember that last year the Academy chucked their (very good and transparent) tradition of releasing the full official list of submissions in early October. If they continue that this year we won't have exact counts for awhile which is quite sad since those films need all the attention they can get and they only have a short window to get that since the all but 10 of them will be culled on December 21st when the shortlist is announced. What's more we thrive on statistics and factoids when getting obsessed with this niche window into global cinema and you cant do that without the exact list. ANYWAY, sorry about all the minutae. There are quite a few interesting new submissions / factoids to share with you after the jump...

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Interview: 'Goddamned Asura' director Lou Yi-an on his multi-layered crime drama

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Inspired by a 2014 real-life killing, Goddamned Asura explores the lives of six people involved in a ramdom shooting in a night market, including the perpetrator - a troubled teenager named Jan Wen. The film follows not only the lead-up to the shooting incident, but also the aftermath of the characters as they face the repercussions of the actions of Jan Wen.The result is a somber exploration of class, isolation, and violence that is unfortunately still timely and universal.

Goddamned Asura is Taiwan's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In this interview, co-writer and director Lou Yi-an expounds on the origins and themes of the story as well as explaining some terms with their cultural context compared to their English translation...

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"World War III" and other new titles join the Oscar race

Bosnia, Iran, Nepal, Portugal, and Romania have announced their submissions to the 95th Oscars. Here's a little info about those choices... 

🇮🇷 WORLD WAR III (Houman Seyyedi)
IRAN  (3 nominations, 2 wins, and 2 additional finalists from 28 submissions)

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Belgium's "Close", Venezuela's "The Box" and Israel's "Cinema Sabaya" join the Oscar race

With 43 entries thus far, we're just a few titles short of the halfway mark on submissions for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Oscars. There's usually a little over 90 films. You can see the full submission charts here but if that's too much all at once for you, here are the most recent three countries to announce....

🇦🇲 CLOSE (Lukas Dhont)
BELGIUM (7 nominations and 2 additional finalists from 47 submissions)

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