Oscar Shocker: The Past and Wadjda Don’t Make the Foreign Film Shortlist

The shortlist for the Foreign Language Film Oscar was revealed today and most notably for what was missing rather than what made it. Iran’s The Past, from Asghar Farhadi, was surprisingly snubbed. His A Separation won this award just two years ago and was seen as a frontrunner here. Also missing, and also a deemed front runner, was Saudi Arabia’s Wadjda.

The films that made the cut feature the documentary The Missing Picture from Cambodia and two Golden Globe nominees, The Great Beauty (Italy) and The Hunt (Denmark).

Coming off an historic selection of 76 films, the first process whittles them down to nine. A general committee makes up six of the shortlist then a hand-picked (whose hand, we don’t know) group of 20 decide on the final three. From that the final five will be chosen to be Oscar nominees.

From the AMPAS press release:

Belgium, “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Felix van Groeningen, director
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker,” Danis Tanovic, director
Cambodia, “The Missing Picture,” Rithy Panh, director
Denmark, “The Hunt,” Thomas Vinterberg, director
Germany, “Two Lives,” Georg Maas, director
Hong Kong, “The Grandmaster,” Wong Kar-wai, director
Hungary, “The Notebook,” Janos Szasz, director
Italy, “The Great Beauty,” Paolo Sorrentino, director
Palestine, “Omar,” Hany Abu-Assad, director

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR (November) - November 15, 2024
• Nicole Kidman to Receive International Star Award for ‘Babygirl’ from Palm Springs International Film Awards - November 15, 2024
• Conan O’Brien to Host 2025 Oscars: “America Demanded It!” - November 15, 2024