2021 Oscars: International Feature Film Official Selections

The Academy may have pushed the eligibility period for International Feature Film submissions from October to December 31 due to the coronavirus pandemic and keeping in line with other extensions made this year, but it hasn’t stopped at least one country from being first and early with their choice.

Poland is the first country to submit a film for International Feature Film Oscar consideration this season. This is the 52nd submission for the Eastern European country, which has been nominated in this category 12 times and won once (2014’s Ida from Paweł Pawlikowski), began with a shortlist of seven films: Hater, dir. Jan Komasa; Sweat, dir. Magnus von Horn; Sprawa Tomka Komend, dir. Jan Holoubek; Never Gonna Snow Again, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert; Supernova, dir. Bartosz Kruhlik; Klecha, dir. Jacek Gwizdała and Kill it and Leave This Town, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński.

Poland has chosen Never Gonna Snow Again, directed Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert to represent the country at the next Oscars. The film is the story of a Ukrainian migrant working as a masseur in Poland becomes a guru-like figure in the gated community where his clients live. It will screen at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in September and is the first film from both Szumowska and Englert to be submitted.

Ecuador’s selection, Vacio, is the first time a Latin American country has ever submitted a film spoken majorly in a language outside of the Amerindian and European spheres (Mandarin is spoken in 70% of the film). 

With Czechia submitting Charlatan, Agnieszka Holland becomes the first woman to have three films submitted across three different countries. Previously, Holland had two films nominated in this category: 1985’s Angry Harvest (West Germany) and 2011’s In Darkness (Poland), joining to the exclusive list alongside Luis Buñuel (France and Spain), Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands and France), Moshé Mizrahi (Israel and France), Akira Kurosawa (Japan and Soviet Union), Miguel Littin (Mexico and Nicaragua), Michael Haneke (Germany and Austria), Maximilian Schell (West Germany and Switzerland) among others. If Charlatan is nominated Holland will be the first person ever to have films submitted by 3 different countries nominated. Also, this is the first time ever a Czech film submitted has been directed by a woman.

The Nigeria Official Selection Committee for Academy Awards submissions stated the Oscars had approved Nigerian Pidgin English as a non-English (Foreign language) recording dialogue in films. This comes one year after the country’s first-ever submission, Lionheart, was disqualified for containing too much English. Ultimately, the commission submitted a non-Pidgin English film.

Netherlands’ Buladó is the first time a submission has been fully spoken in Papiamento creole and should be able to take advantage of the opening up of allowable languages in this category by the Academy after its Nigerian Pidgin English ruling.

Two countries had their films disqualified this year: Canada and Portugal. Canada pulled the Ava DuVernay-backed Funny Boy after it didn’t meet the non-English language requirements and submitted 14 Days, 12 Nights from Jean-Philippe Duval as its replacement. Portugal replaced Listen with Vitalina Varela from Pedro Costa.

Belarus’s submission Persian Lessons was disqualified since it is a multinational production, although that didn’t impede other films, like Tel Aviv on Fire, which is representing Luxembourg. No replacement has been set. Bhutan’s A Yak in the Classroom and Uzbekistan’s Songs of Farida were also disqualified but no specific reasons were given.

The submission deadline for entries is December 1, 2020 and all submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. The official list of qualifying submissions will be released in January.

Stats and Notes

Foreign-language/International Feature films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar

Between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented Special Awards to the best foreign language films released in the U.S. Because these awards were not handed out on a regular basis and didn’t have any nominees, they were not competitive. For the 29th Academy Awards in 1956, a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films. It has since then been awarded annually category. Nearly 20 years earlier, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion (France) was nominated for Best Picture in 1938, its only nomination. 2006’s Letters From Iwo Jima was a Japanese-spoken US production not an official submission for foreign language film.

Since the inception of the foreign language/international feature Oscar, only 9 films have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Last year, South Korea’s Parasite became the first ever to win.

Number of films with female directors or co-directors (32): Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Czechia, Dominican Republic, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The biggest losers: While Israel is the biggest loser with 10 nominations and no wins in this category, and Portugal is the currently the most unsuccessful country for getting a nomination with the most submissions (at 36), Philippines holds another record. It’s the sole country which sent a submission film at the first competitive year (1956) that hasn’t gotten an Oscar nom yet. The other 7 countries that submitted that first year – France, Italy, West Germany (now Germany), Denmark, Sweden, Japan and Spain – all of these ended up winning at least once.

Countries with potential eligibility issues: Canada, Portugal and Tunisia (amount of English language content). Belarus and Jordan (origin/nationality issues).

Submission with LGBTQ+ subjects or themes: Canada, France.

Countries submitting for the first time: Lesotho, Sudan, Suriname.

Here is the official list of submissions for the International Feature Film Oscar, updating throughout the season. Titles in red have links to reviews.