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