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94th Oscars. Oscar Contenders of 2021 (for the March 2022 Ceremony) - For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes

 discuss on the blog

Most Recent Update: November 10th, 2021
OFFICIAL SUBMISSION LIST


Chart Two: Haiti through Norway
30 SUBMISSIONS
Current predictions |  Albania through Georgia | Pakistan through Yemen

 

Haiti
 never nominated 

FREDA
dir. Gessica Geneus

93 minutes
Haitan, English, French

A drama about a family trying to escape the struggle of everyday violence and poverty

Hong Kong
3 noms | 0 wins
(submitting since 1959)

 

ZERO TO HERO
dir. Jimmy Wan
Official Site

102 minutes
Cantonese

A biopic of Hong Kong's first gold medal winnig paralympian.

 

Hungary
10 noms | 2 wins (submitting since 1965)

POST MORTEM
dir Péter Bergendy
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

115 minutes
Hungarian & German

A horror story about a photographer and a little girl after the first world war

More on Hungary and Oscar...

Iceland
1 nomination
(submitting since 1980)

LAMB
dir. Valdimar Johannsson
NOW PLAYING IN US

106 minutes
Icelandic

A childless couple adopt a strange newborn on their farm in Iceland

India
3 nominations
(submitting since 1957)

PEBBLES
dir. P.S. Vinothraj

75 minutes
Tamil

An alcoholic tries to get his wife back (after beating her) with his son in tow

Not selected: They were deciding between 14 films but we could only find a handful of those titles.

 

Indonesia
never nominated (submitting since 1987)

YUNI
dir. Kamila Andini

95 minutes
Indonesian

A teenage girl rejects a marriage proposal but culturally you can't reject too many. From the director of The Seen and Unseen

Iran
3 noms | 2 wins
(submitting since 1977)

 A HERO
Asgar Farhadi
US RELEASE -JAN 2021

127 minutes
Persian

A moral quandry drama about a man in prison for debts he is unable to repay.

More on Iran's relationship to Oscar here.

Iraq
never nominated
(submitting since 2005 though spottily)

EUROPA
dir. Haider Rashid
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

75 minutes
Arabic, Bulgarian, and English

A film about an Iraqi man trying to migrate to Europe at the Turkey-Bulgaria border. It premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight.

Ireland
never nominated
(submitting spottily since 2005)

FOSCADH/SHELTER
dir. Sean Breathnach
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

93 minutes
Irish

A loner inherits valuable land which brings several problems.

Israel
10 noms | 0 wins
(submitting since 1964)

LET IT BE MORNING
dir. Eran Kolirin
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

101 minutes
Arabic & Hebrew

The Palestinian cast protested this being referred to as an Israeli film at Cannes so one imagines there's troubl ahead that this will be considered an Israeli film by Oscar

 

Italy
28 noms | 11 wins | 3 honoraries (submitting since 1956)

THE HAND OF GOD
dir. Paolo Sorrentino
NETFLIX DEC 15TH

130 minutes
Italian

A semi autobiographical story of a young man in Italy his eccentric family and his decision to become a filmmaker.

Not selected: Italy considered 17 other films for this honor, too

More on Italy and Oscar...

Japan
13 noms | 1 win | 3 honoraries 
(submitting since 1956)

DRIVE MY CAR
dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Janus Films
US RELEASE NOV 24TH

Official Site
179 minutes
Japanese

A drama about a stage director/actor, his wife, and his new chauffer.

Jordan
1 nomination
(submitting since 2008)

AMIRA

Kazakhstan
1 nomination
(submitting since 1992)

YELLOW CAT

Kenya
never nominated (submitting since 2012)

MISSION TO RESCUE
dir. Gilbert Lukalia
Trailer

93 minutes
Swahili

Some kind of action/war film though it doesn't have an IMDb page or offiicial site that we can find.

 

Kosovo
never nominated (submitting since 2014) 

HIVE
Dir: Blerta Basholli
KINO LORBER  TBA

84 minutes
Albanian

DEBUT DIRECTOR. This drama won 3 major prizes at Sundance 2021. This story is about a woman struggling against the patriarchy to run her own own business after her husband goes missing in the war. 

Kyrgysztan
never nominated (submitting since 1998)

SHAMBALA
dir.Artykpai Suyunukov
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

93 minutes
Kyrgyz and English

The life of a young boy in the mountains and the folklore tales his grandfather tells him.

Latvia
never nominated
(submitting since 1992)

THE PIT
dir. Dace Puce

90 or 107 minutes (???)
Latvian

A young boy decides to teach a neighbor girl a lesson when she badmouths his dead father in this drama. This is her second feature fpm the director though her debut was relased the same year.

Lebanon
2 nominations
(submitting since 1978)

COSTA BRAVA LEBANON
dir. Mounia Aki

106 minutes
Arabic

A couple decides to leave the city to built a utopia in the mountains. Lebanon's most internationally famous director Nadine Labaki (Capernaum, Caramel) has the lead role in front of the camera.

Lithuania
never nominated (submitting since 2006)

ISAAC
dir. Jurgis Matulevicius
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

104 minutes
Lithuanian, German, Russian

A man who killed his neighbor, a Jew, in 1941 is haunted by his crime.

What happened to: Initially Lithuania announced that they were sending a documentary called The Jump

 

Luxembourg
never nominated (submitting since 1997)

IO STO BENE
dir. Donato Rotunno
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

94 minutes
Italian, French, and Luxembourgish

An old Italian man who has lived away from Italy his whole life meets a young Italian artist abroad. 

Malawi
never nominated 

FATSANI - TALE OF SURVIVAL
dir. Gift Sukali
(submitting since 2018)
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

Trailer
113 minutes
Nyanja & English

A young girl sells bananas on the street. This is only Malawi's second Oscar submission.

Malaysia
never nominated
(submitting since)

HAIL, DRIVER
dir. Muzzamer Rahman

82 minutes
Malay & Mandarin

A man begins illegal driving in Kuala Lumpur after his father dies.

Malta
never nominated
(submitting since 2014)

LUZZU
dir. Alex Camilleri
NOW PLAYING IN US

94 minutes
Maltese & English

A man enters the black market fishing industry to provide for his wife and child.

Mexico
8 noms / 1 win
(submitting since 1957)

PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN
dir. Tatiana Huezo
NETFLIX IN US TBA

110 minutes
Spanish

Three young adolescent girls try to survive in war town Mexico. Huezo was previously submitted for a documentary
 Tempestad which was about human trafficking.

 

Montenegro
never nominated
(submitting since 2013)

AFTER THE WINTER
dir. Ivan Batrack
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

101 minutes
Serbo-Croatian

The story of five former childhood friends leaving their youth behind.

Morocco
never nominated (submitting since 1977)

CASABLANCA BEATS
Dir: Nayil Abouch
NO US DISTRIBJTION YET

101 minutes
Arabic
REVIEW

This is Ayouch's fifth submission from his home country, by far the most for any Moroccan director.

The Netherlands
7 noms | 3 wins
(submitting since 1959)

DO NOT HESITATE
dir. Shariff Korver
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

90 minutes
Dutch, English, and Arabic

three young soliders are tasked with guarding a military vehicle

Not Selected:The finalist list of 14 films had some high profile titles with streaming distribution in the US

More on The Netherlands

North Macedonia
2 nominations
(submitting since 1994)

SISTERHOOD
dir. Dina Duma
NO US DISTRIBUTION YET

90 minutes
Macedonian

Two teenage girls get into trouble and are involved in other girls accident. This is a debut feature from Dina Duma.

Norway
5 nominations
(submitting since 1957)

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
dir. Joachim Trier
NEON 2022 RELEASE
Official Site

127 minutes
Norwegian

The romances of a young woman who keeps changing her mind about everything. Reinate Rensve won Best Actress at Cannes for this delightful inventive film.

Not Selected: the other finalists were the Holocaust drama Betrayed, and the pregnant illustrator dramedy Ninjababy

More on Norway and Oscar here...