France chooses 5 finalists for the coveted Oscar submission

by Nathaniel R

France is the most-nominated country of all time in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race. What's more their tally is so impressive it will be probably be several decades before anyone catches up (IF that ever happens). Though they don't lead in winners (Italy holds that distinction) they haven't ever had a true slump of being passed over for nominations* so they're always crucial to watch. Consider the crazy impressive stats. They are the only country to submit to each and every Oscar race in this category. Their total honors include 38 nominations, 9 wins, and 3 additional finalists from 67 submissions. Before this became a competitive category in 1956, they won 3 Honorary Awards.

What will they select this year? The Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, the agency responsible for choosing France's submission has named five finalists, all but one of which are from female directors. Here's a little detail on each film (if the title is linked it goes to our festival coverage)...

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Finland submits "Girl Picture" (ihana!) and other Oscar news

by Nathaniel R

You all know that we here at TFE are huge fans of Girl Picture and today comes news that Finland has chosen it as their Oscar submission. While we wish its US release had been noisier (it was still playing in NYC last week) we've talked it up to everyone we know and all of you of course. It's one of the seven most recent official submissions to be announced. More after the jump... 

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5 more countries name their Oscar submissions

by Nathaniel R

Real life multi-lingual Portuguese twins play mute twins in Albania's entry

Chart update time yet again. We have five more entries for Best International Feature Film from Algeria, Hungary, Slovenia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only one of the submitted directors has been sent to the Oscars before so it's mostly young(ish) filmmakers in this block of contenders...

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Algeria, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Greece join the Oscar race

by Nathaniel R

MAGNETIC FIELDS is the Greek entry for the Oscars this year

An exciting morning for Best International Feature Film followers. Just after Sweden and Denmark both announced their Oscar finalists list, four more countries have announced their official submissions. (Each country can submit just one film, though not all of the participating company's name finalist lists) The films are as follows.

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Denmark's 3 Oscar finalists and their strong awards history

by Nathaniel R

If you've been reading the Film Experience for some time you know that your host here is fond of Scandinavian cinema. I'm of partial Danish descent and once lived in Norway and the two combined prompted the interest around the time the Oscars took over my life. When it comes to Oscars' Best International Feature Film category the common wisdom is that France, Italy, an Spain reign but that's only because they have the most in terms of "all time" stats. If you look at more recent history, it's a much different story. For instance, in the 22 years of the 21st century to date, Norway has doubled its meager nomination count and Denmark has more than doubled its previous nomination count. In fact, Denmark is currently tied for #1 in terms of Oscar's favourite foreign country of the 21st century thus far (8 nominations and 2 wins... which Germany also has. Only Sweden, once Oscar's favourite scandinavian country, has been losing momentum.

To make a long story short, Denmark should always be watched closely in the Oscar race. After the jump their three finalists for their 2022 Oscar submission plus their rich Oscar history overall...

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