Austria, “Revanche,” Gotz Spielmann, director;
Canada, “The Necessities of Life,” Benoit Pilon, director;
France, “The Class,” Laurent Cantet, director;
Germany, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” Uli Edel, director;
Israel, “Waltz with Bashir,” Ari Folman, director;
Japan, “Departures,” Yojiro Takita, director;
Mexico, “Tear This Heart Out,” Roberto Sneider, director;
Sweden, “Everlasting Moments,” Jan Troell, director;
Turkey, “3 Monkeys,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director.

http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleas ... 90113.html

Even the remaining countries are boring. Hah.

Too bad for the Philippines

Wait... no Gomorrah?

One surprise: no Gomorrah.

My predictions:

Canada, “The Necessities of Life,”
France, “The Class,”
Germany, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,”
Israel, “Waltz with Bashir,”
Sweden, “Everlasting Moments,”

alt: Austria, “Revanche,”

tisk tisk. why didn't le france nom A Christmas Tale instead of The Class. Would have walked with the Oscar easy.

WTF?!?! No Gomorra?

This is indeed VERY suprising.

This will be one boring category. Waltz with Bashir has it in the bag.

Great to see Austria sneaking in, though. haha.

and go, Baader Meinhof komplex!

you know gomorrha is italian, right?

I meant the class. muy estupido.

One film per country rule prevented I've Loved You for So Long and Let the Right One In from being submitted.

The Class won Golden Palm and enjoys better reviews (93 at MC with 4 100s out of the 10 reviews).

yeah, I'm basing it off the fact that, having seen A Christmas Tale, it's right up the Academy's alley. At least relative to other good foreign films.

Revanche I keep hearing is awesome.

YAY! Gomorrah missed! I'm glad.

I hope The Baader Meinhof Complex will miss too.

The selection process for the Foreign Film Oscar is the most ridiculous thing ever.

You know I have to say the UK and Ireland being excluded just because of language always irked me.

If somebody told me I was just the same as an American I'd likely lamp them. (No offense to Americans but I like my own identity)

As for the shortlist I hope Waltz with Bashir gets in.

Waltz with Bashir is most likely winning this.

Could The Class upset Waltz with Bashir?

It could.

But it probably won't since Waltz will already be losing Best Animated to WALL-E...

No, because Waltz is IMPORTANT. The upsets happen with IMPORTANT movies, not to IMPORTANT movies. See: No Man's Land.

Would Waltz with Bashir be the first documentary to win Best Foreign Language Film?

I agree. I hate the "one film per country" rule too. Sweden picked the wrong film.

Harry Knowles made a decent point as well: the one-submission-from-every-country rule will hurt movies which the government may not smile upon. The government of Anywherestan may have a pair of films on their table: a brilliant, very well-made, but extremely violent crime movie and a vanilla, uplifting, pedestrian, decently made biopic. You can't help but suspect the suits will lean more towards the latter, as a "nice" cinematic ambassador.

Why? Because it's a good movie?

Because most definitely, it is not good enough.

Suckage like every year. Baader Meinhof in, deserving films out. This committee is a joke!

The only thing that pisses me off about the Foreign Film race this year is Sweden not picking LET THE RIGHT ONE IN as its film. That was really moronic. They made a huge mistake. While I'm sure it would have lost out to WALTZ WITH BASHIR, it would have been one of the leading contenders in the foreign film race and it certainly would have had a much bigger chance of winning than Sweden's actual pick - EVERLASTING MOMENTS. It kind of pisses me off because it seems like such a missed opportunity. This foreign film actually had a shot at breaking out. It's too bad it wasn't given more of a chance.