9 Films Advance to Oscar Foreign Language Film Category

Nine foreign language films have advanced to the next round of voting for the Academy Awards, as the finalists for the Foreign Language Film Oscar have been narrowed down from the original eighty-three entrants.

Among the shortlistees are critical favorites such as Poland's Ida, the drama centered on a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who learns her birth parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. Also on the list is Sweden's Force Majeure, a darkly comic drama focused on a Swedish family trapped in an avalanche, and its patriarch's shocking response to adversity. Argentinian anthology film Wild Tales was recently named Best Foreign Language Film by the National Board of Review, so its inclusion here is no surprise, and the addition of Georgia's Corn Island, a tale about an embattled farmer and his granddaughter fighting the elements, portends a tight Oscar race ahead.

But what other movies have made the shortlist?

The films, countries and directors are listed below:

Credit: Music Box Films

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OSCAR FINALISTS

Argentina, "Wild Tales," Damián Szifrón, director

Estonia, "Tangerines," Zaza Urushadze, director

Georgia, "Corn Island," George Ovashvili, director

Mauritania, "Timbuktu," Abderrahmane Sissako, director

Netherlands, "Accused," Paula van der Oest, director

Poland, "Ida," Pawe? Pawlikowski, director

Russia, "Leviathan," Andrey Zvyagintsev, director

Sweden, "Force Majeure," Ruben Östlund, director

Venezuela, "The Liberator," Alberto Arvelo, director

The Foreign Language Film nominations for 2014 are being determined in two phases:

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 15. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

The five Oscar nominees will be determined by specially invited committees in New York, Los Angeles and, for the first time, London. From Friday, January 9, through Sunday, January 11, voters will be able to view three films each day and then cast their ballots.

Find out which five films are nominated for the Foreign Language Film Oscar when the 87th Academy Awards nominations are announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015.

And find out who wins on Oscar Sunday, on February 22, 2015!