Nine films remain in contention for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced on Friday. The list includes one of the most acclaimed films of the year, the Holocaust drama Son of Saul.
Son of Saul (reviewed here) is the debut feature from Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes. Since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, it has been widely praised by critics and is still considered the frontrunner for the Oscar.
The eight other films on the list are:
The Brand New Testament (Jaco Van Dormael, Belgium)
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, Colombia)
A War (Tobias Lindholm, Denmark)
The Fencer (Klaus Haro, Finland)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Erguven, France)
Labyrinth of Lies (Giulio Ricciarelli, Germany)
Viva (Paddy Breathnach, Ireland)
Theeb (Naji Abu Nowar, Jordan)
The shortlist is made up of the Top 6 pick from Los Angeles-based Academy members. The Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee picks three more films, which also make the shortlist.
Only five films will be nominated for the Oscar. Those five are picked by committees in New York, Los Angeles and London. The previous winner for the award was Ida, directed by Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski.
The nominees for the 88th Academy Awards are announced on Jan. 14. The ceremony takes place on Feb. 28.