Oscars: International Shortlist Snubs and Surprises
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled the shortlist of 15 films that will vie for a nomination for the best international feature film Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards.
85 countries submitted features this award season but several frontrunners quickly pulled out from the pack, and easily made it onto the longlist, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, representing France, the Danish contender The Girl With the Needle from director Magnus von Horn, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an Iran-set feature submitted by co-production country Germany.
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Several festival circuit favorites made the cut. I’m Still Here, Brazil’s contender comes to the Oscars on referral from Venice, where it won the best screenplay prize. Director Walter Salles scored an Oscar nom back in Central Station in the international category (then known as best foreign-language film), with Fernanda Montenegro, who has a cameo in I’m Still Here, got a best actress nom for her starring role. Cheeky Irish rap comedy Kneecap, audience award winner in Sundance’s NEXT section, and swept the British Independent Film Awards, easily slid into the final 15. And Waves, the Czech ticking time bomb historical thriller, audience award winner at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, won over the Academy.
But there were a few surprises, and a handful of snubs, on this year’s longlist.
Thailand’s entry, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, was a no-show on the major international festivals but became a word-of-mouth hit across Asia, eventually earning more than $50 million at the worldwide box office. Academy voters apparently warmed to the feel-good comedy about a slacker who volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother in the hopes of pocketing an inheritance when she croaks.
Another shortlisted title, Touch, from Iceland, was also MIA on the festival circuit but the decades-spanning melodrama, which shares some romantic DNA with director Baltasar Kormákur’s 2000 breakout, 101 Rekyavik, made a splash in limited release in the U.S. this summer, via Focus Features. And Kormákur, as the director of 2 Guns, Everest and Contraband, is a familiar face stateside, which can’t have hurt.
There were a few festival favorites that didn’t make the cut. Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s crime drama Sujo, Mexico’s entry, which earned the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema in Sundance, was snubbed by the Academy. Austria’s contender, The Devil’s Bath, a historic horror from Goodnight Mommy directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, picked up prizes at the Berlin Film Festival and the European Film Awards, was passed over. And Grand Tour, Portugal’s hopeful, another experimental offering from Miguel Gomes, who won best director in Cannes for the black-and-white period/documentary mash-up, was also overlooked.
Nonfiction and animation entries often have a tough time competing with traditional dramas in this category. The docs And So It Begins (Sweden), Behind the Mist (Ecuador), and The Last Ones (Paraguay) didn’t make the shortlist, and Pakistan’s first animated feature selection, The Glassworker, was similarly snubbed. But a couple of non-dramas made the cut, including the Berlin Film Festival-winning documentary Dahomey (Senegal), from director Mati Diop, whose drama Atlantics was a 2019 Oscar nominee; and Gints Zilbalodis’ crowd-pleasing animated feature Flow, which made the shortlist both for international features, representing Latvia, and is a strong contender for a best-animated feature nom.
Chilean director Maite Alberdi, who picked up Oscar nominations for her last two documentaries, 2020’s The Mole Agent and 2023’s The Eternal Memory, was passed over by the Academy this time around, with her period drama In Her Place, failing to make the final 15.
The Academy’s efforts to increase geographical diversity were less evident in this year’s shortlist, with the traditional European powerhouses continuing to dominate. 11 of the 15 shortlisted films are from Europe, just two from Asia — Palestine entry From Ground Zero and How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies from Thailand — and Diop’s Dahomey the only African contender. Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, Canada’s hopeful, is the only film representing the Americas.
But European countries which submitted entries set outside the continent made the cut. Although it was shot in France, Emilia Pérez is set in Mexico and filmed in Spanish. Farsi is the only language spoken in The Seed of the Sacred Fig, representing Germany, and the film never leaves Tehran. Santosh, directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri and shot in India, was a rare U.K. entry to make the final 15.
Voting for the 97th Oscars begins at 9 am PT on Jan. 8 and runs through 5 p.m. PT on Jan. 12. The nominees will be unveiled Jan. 17. Final voting begins at 9 a.m. PT on Feb. 11 and ends at 5 p.m. PT on Feb. 18.
The 15 films on the shortlist for best international film for the 2025 Oscars, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Brazil, I’m Still Here
Canada, Universal Language
Czech Republic, Waves
Denmark, The Girl With the Needle
France, Emilia Pérez
Germany, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Iceland, Touch
Ireland, Kneecap
Italy, Vermiglio
Latvia, Flow
Norway, Armand
Palestine, From Ground Zero
Senegal, Dahomey
Thailand, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
United Kingdom, Santosh
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