Argentina, "XXY" Lucia Puenzo
Australia, "The Home Song Stories" Tony Ayres
Austria, "The Counterfeiters" Stefan Ruzowitzky
Azerbaijan, "Caucasia" Farid Gumbatov
Bangladesh, "On the Wings of Dreams" Golam Rabbany
Belgium, "Ben X" Nic Balthazar
Bosnia and Herzegovina, "It's Hard to Be Nice" Srdan Vuletic
Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" Cao Hamburger
Bulgaria, "Warden of the Dead" Ilian Simeonov.


Canada, "Days of Darkness" Denys Arcand
Chile, "Padre Nuestro" Rodrigo Sepulveda
China, "The Knot" Yin Li
Colombia, "Satanas" Andi Baiz
Croatia, "Armin" Ognjen Svilicic
Cuba, "The Silly Age" Pavel Giroud
Czech Republic, "I Served the King of England" Jiri Menzel
Denmark, "The Art of Crying" Peter Schonau Fog
Egypt, "In the Heliopolis Flat" Mohamed Khan
Estonia, "The Class" Ilmar Raag.

Finland, "A Man's Job" Aleksi Salmenpera
France, "Persepolis" Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnauds
Georgia, "The Russian Triangle" Aleko Tsabadze
Germany, "The Edge of Heaven" Fatih Akin
Greece, "Eduart" Angeliki Antoniou
Hong Kong, "Exiled" Johnnie To
Hungary, "Taxidermia" Gyorgy Palfi
Iceland, "Jar City" Baltasar Kormakur
India, "Eklavya – The Royal Guard" Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Indonesia, "Denias, Singing on the Cloud" John De Rantau
Iran, "M for Mother" Rasoul Mollagholipour
Iraq, "Jani Gal" Jamil Rostami
Ireland, "Kings" Tom Collins
Israel, "Beaufort" Joseph Cedar
Italy, "The Unknown" Giuseppe Tornatore.

Japan, "I Just Didn't Do It" Masayuki Suo
Kazakhstan, "Mongol" Sergei Bodrov
Korea, "Secret Sunshine" Chang-dong Lee
Lebanon, "Caramel" Nadine Labaki
Luxembourg, "Little Secrets" Pol Cruchten
Macedonia, "Shadows" Milcho Manchevski
Mexico, "Silent Light" Carlos Reygadas
The Netherlands, "Duska" Jos Stelling
Norway, "Gone with the Woman" Petter Naess
Peru, "Crossing a Shadow" Augusto Tamayo
Philippines, "Donsol" Adolfo Alix, Jr.
Poland, "Katyn" Andrzej Wajda
Portugal, "Belle Toujours" Manoel de Oliveira
Puerto Rico, "Love Sickness" Carlitos Ruiz, Mariem Perezs.

Romania, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" Cristian Mungiu
Russia, "12" Nikita Mikhalkov
Serbia, "The Trap" Srdan Golubovic
Singapore, "881" Royston Tan
Slovakia, "Return of the Storks" Martin Repka
Slovenia, "Short Circuits" Janez Lapajne
Spain, "The Orphanage" J.A. Bayona
Sweden, "You, the Living" Roy Andersson
Switzerland, "Late Bloomers" Bettina Oberli
Taiwan, "Island Etude" Chen Huai-En
Thailand, "King of Fire" Chatrichalerm Yukol
Turkey, "A Man's Fear of God" Ozer Kiziltan
Uruguay, "The Pope's Toilet" Enrique Fernandez, Cesar Charlones
Venezuela, "Postcards from Leningrad" Mariana Rondon
Vietnam, "The White Silk Dress" Luu Huynh


Having not seen any of these movies, I still have a personal favorite, and that's Honk Kong. I have seen other Johnny To movies, and he deserves some kind of prize. Breaking News and Fulltime Killer were both very good.

Is this final? *Only* 63? How many qualified last year?

The Philippines submitted another digital/independent film. Looks like they're going back to how they submitted films in the 70's/80's.

63 is a new record.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Persepolis are the closest ones to being locks. Silent Light is possible since one out of every three Mexican submission is nominated Then again going by that same fact, maybe it's time for a 2 year break.

Cuba could also get in. But other than the first two the category is still wide open.

Yeah, Lust, Caution got disqualified, and Taiwan had to submit a different film instead.

Persepolis is... animated, right?

I always find at least one movie in the foreign list with a quirky title. THe Pope's Toilet is the one for me.

From that list, one of the only directors I know offhand is Gyorgy Palfi...his movie Hukkle is really really great. So I checked out imdb, and this new one, Taxadermia is a "grotesque tale of three generations of men, including an obese speed eater, an embalmer of gigantic cats, and a man who shoots fire out of his penis." Omg, sign me up.

Oh shit, they chose that as their contender? Ever since I read a review about this one at some festival, I've been dying to see it. It sounds sooo fucked up. By the way, those three men are three generations of family. Sweet.

Yep, not enough Taiwanese people worked on the film or something like that. With buzz and box office substantially down, Lust, Caution may not score anything come that fateful Tuesday morning.

Score is still very much a possibility since it's one of the categories that correlates with BP the least, and Desplat is on a hot streak.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days should almost definitely get in.

Now I wonder if Germany can score yet another nom. Chances are good as the film is supposedly pretty great.

Cinematography is still possible, they need to fill in "Token Slot for Purty Asian Film." Plus, it's... Rodrigo Prieto, right?

I wonder if Persepolis can be nominated in Best Foreign Film AND Best Animated Feature?

Excellent submission by Canada! I hope you all remember Denys Arcand? This is Arcand's third part of his trilogy. It began with 'The Decline of the American Empire' and then the awesome 'The Barbarian Invasions', the foreign film winner in 2004.

Peace,
Mike

Yes. You can be nominated in any category, including Best Picture (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won for Foreign film and won like 3 others out of a total of 10 nominations, for example).

The following line-up looks possible, IMO:

Persepolis
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
12
The Orphanage
The Counterfeiters