2023 Oscars: Official submissions for International Feature Film

The race for the next International Feature Film Oscar has begun.

The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) has been selected as Ireland’s entry for the at the upcoming 95th annual Academy Awards and is the first country of the 2023 Oscar season to submit for the International Feature Film Academy Award.

Based on Foster, the acclaimed story by Irish author Claire Keegan, The Quiet Girl is an intricate, deeply felt coming-of-age drama that delves into the meaning of family through the eyes of a neglected young girl. Set in rural Ireland in 1981, the film follows Cáit (Catherine Clinch) as she is sent from her overcrowded, dysfunctional household to live with distant relatives for the summer. She is welcomed with open arms by Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley), but her husband (Andrew Bennett) keeps Cáit at arm’s length. Slowly, however, a warmth grows within this makeshift family and Cáit begins to blossom in their care. But in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.

Selected by IFTA’s 2023 Irish Selection Committee, which includes producer and Emmy-nominated actress Roma Downey (Ben-Hur, Touched by an Angel), Oscar-nominated actor John C. Reilly (Chicago, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), producer & Paramount TV EVP of International Strategy David Flynn (Bodkin, Seraphim Falls), Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In America), director Aisling Walsh (Maudie, Song for a Raggy Boy) and actress Fionnula Flanagan (The Others, The Guard). The Committee was chaired by Academy CEO, Áine Moriarty.

Colm Bairéad’s debut feature made history in Ireland recently as the first Irish language film to win the Irish Academy Award (IFTA) for Best Film. The Quiet Girl received 7 IFTAs overall including: director, actress, cinematography, editing, production design, and original score. 

Rules for International Feature Film at the 95th Oscars

An international film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America and its territories with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Animated and documentary feature films are permitted.

A shortlist of 15 qualifying films will be announced on December 21, 2022 with Oscar nominations revealed on January 24, 2023. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12, 2023.

Country-selected films that had a previously planned theatrical release but are initially made available
through a reputable commercial streaming distribution service or video on demand may qualify for
Awards consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 95th Academy Awards under
these provisions:

• Provide to the Academy documentation (original document(s) and an English translation) of
government-mandated theater/cinema closure dates, previously planned theatrical release and
streaming distribution or video on demand agreements;

• Meet all other eligibility requirements.

In order for films to more easily meet theatrical exhibition requirements, the Academy will allow
films to qualify outside the country of origin, provided the film is theatrically exhibited outside of the
United States and its territories for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theater for paid admission. The International Feature Film Executive Committee will evaluate all matters of rules and eligibility.

Participation in a film festival’s online/virtual platform will not affect a film’s eligibility for Awards
consideration provided the festival has a transactional pay wall or password-protected entry. Film festival
participation does not qualify a film in the International Feature Film category. Films must comply with
all other eligibility requirements for the 95th Academy Awards.

International Feature Film submissions may be submitted for consideration for the 95th Academy
Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they comply with the rules governing
those categories.

Films submitted for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 95th Academy
Awards are not eligible for consideration in other awards categories in the subsequent year, nor
could the films have been submitted in other awards categories in a previous year

Submission deadlines:

1. Each country shall be invited to submit its best film to the Academy. Selection of that film shall be
   made by one approved organization, jury or committee that should include artists and/or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures. A list of the selection committee members must be submitted to the Academy no later than Monday, August 15, 2022, or by the submission deadline published by the Academy. Countries submitting for the first time, or which have not submitted for the previous five years, must present a list of selection committee members and application materials for Academy approval by December 31, 2022, for eligibility in the following (96th) Awards year. A country need not submit a film every year for Awards consideration.

2. Only one film will be accepted from each country as the official selection. Films should be
   submitted to the Academy as soon as they are selected.
3. The Academy will provide online access to each country’s approved selection committee so that the
   producer of the selected film can supply full production information.
4. The following submission materials must be submitted to the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on Monday,
   October 3, 2022:

• Completed online submission forms
• One 35mm or 70mm film print or DCP with accurate, legible English-language subtitles. The print or DCP submitted for Awards consideration must be identical in content and length to the print or
• DCP used in the film’s qualifying theatrical release.
• Digital media content
• Full cast and credits list
• Director’s biography and photograph
• A designated key frame for streaming display artwork
• A poster from the film’s theatrical release, for archival purposes
• Proof of the film’s qualifying theatrical release, including but not limited to advertising

5. Film prints, DCPs and DVDs submitted will be retained by the Academy throughout the voting
   process and are not available for loan. By submitting a film, the filmmaker agrees that the
   Academy has the right to make copies and distribute them for voting purposes only. The Academy
   will retain for its archives one print of every motion picture receiving a nomination for the International Feature Film award. Additional prints and DCPs of those films receiving nominations will be returned to the sender at the Academy’s expense.

Voting

1. International Feature Film nominations will be determined in two rounds of voting:
   a. The International Feature Film Preliminary Committee will view the eligible submissions in the
   category and vote by secret ballot to produce a shortlist of fifteen films.
   b. The International Feature Film Nominating Committee must view the fifteen shortlisted films and
   vote by secret ballot to determine the category’s five nominees.

2. Final voting for the International Feature Film award shall be restricted to active and life Academy
   members who have viewed all five nominated films.
3. The Academy statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the film and accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative talents. For Academy Awards purposes, the country will be credited as the
   nominee. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the country and film title.

Stats, Notes and Superlatives

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.

In 1957, Denmark became the first country to send a film with a female director to the Foreign Oscar competition (Annelise Hovmand’s Be Dear to Me). Two years later, Astrid Henning-Jensen’s Paw became to the first film directed by a woman to receive a nomination in the category.

Since the inception of the foreign language/international feature Oscar, only 10 films have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. 2019’s South Korea’s Parasite became the first ever to win. 2020 Best Picture nominee Minari, while primarily in Korean, was a U.S. production. Japan’s Drive My Car (2021) is the most recent Best Picture nominee and the winner of last season’s International Feature Film Oscar.

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 to send a submission film in 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 ended up winning the Oscar at least once.

Submissions with women directors or co-directors: Armenia, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia, Finland, France, Guatemala, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malta, North Macedonia, Morocco, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Ukraine

Submissions with LGBTQ+ subjects or themes: Belgium, Finland, Morocco

Countries with potential eligibility issues:

Countries submitting for the first time: Uganda

Last year, 93 submitted films were found eligible for an Oscar nomination. Here is the official list of submissions for the 2023 International Feature Film Oscar, updating throughout the season.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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