OSCAR'S FOREIGN FILM RACE
by Nathaniel R

FINAL PREDICTIONS
I predict that it will be some combo pulled from the following 12 pictures

Spain The Sea Inside	France The Chorus	China House of Flying Daggers	Mexico Innocent Voices	South Africa Yesterday
The Alternates

		Spoilers: Greece A Touch of Spice Sweden As in Heaven Longer Shots / Still Possible: Brazil Olga Chile Machuca Germany Downfall Iran Turtles Can Fly Italy The Keys to the House

All Foreign Pages Have Been Updated.

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November 9th
My predictions prior to the Academy screenings?
Chile Machuca China House of Flying Daggers France Les Choristes Greece A Touch of Spice Spain The Sea Inside

October 25th 8:09 AM
49 Countries Make up the Official Contenders List for the Foreign Language Oscar in 2004
There are usually just over 50 so it's a few titles shy of what we've gotten in the past couple of years. THE OMISSIONS: Colombia submitted Maria Full of Grace but it was deemed to be not Colombian enough -no joke! Argh. Hong Kong's Running on Karma ran into release date trouble with AMPAS and the Ukraine entry A Driver for Vera was found to be too Russian to qualify as a Ukranian contender.
Titles in blue on this page I've seen
The pages linked below have the basic information pertaining to the films submitted and more...
More details will be added throughout the season.

 

Afghanistan to Estonia	Finland to Norway	Palestine to Venezuela	US Box Office for Foreign in 2004	Tally of past Oscar success
Afghanistan Earth and Ashes Argentina El Abrazo Partido / The Lost Embrace Austria Antares Belgium The Alzheimer Case Bosnia-Hersegovania Kod Amide Idrize / Days and Hours Brazil Olga Bulgaria Mila From Mars Canada The Far Side of the Moon Chile Machucha China The House of Flying Daggers Croatia Duga Mracna Noc / Long Dark Night Czech Republic Up and Down Denmark The Five Obstructions Ecuador Chronicles Egypt I Love Cinema Estonia Revolution of Pigs	Finland Producing Adults France Les Chloristes / The Chorus Germany Downfall / Der Untergang Greece A Touch of Spice Hungary Kontroll Iceland Kaldaljos / Cold Light India Shwaas Iran Turtles Fly Too Israel Campfire Italy Le Chiavi di Casa / The House Keys Japan Nobody Knows Korea Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War The Netherlands Simon Macedonia The Great Water Malaysia A Legendary Love Mexico Innocent Voices Malaysia A Legendary Love Mexico Voces Inocentes / Innocent Voices Norway Hawaii, Oslo	Palestine The Olive Harvest Philippines The Crying Ladies Poland Prégi / The Welts Portugal The Miracle According to Salome Romania Orient-Express Russia Nochoj Dozor / Night Watch Serbia-Montenegro Goose Feather Slovenia Beneath her Window Spain The Sea Inside South Africa Yesterday Sweden Så som i Himmelen / As in Heaven Switzerland Mein Name Ist Bach Taiwan 20:30:40 Thailand The Overture Uruguay Whisky Venezuela Punto Y Raya	See which films have caught on and which haven't this year in release stateside. You can also marvel at how many years it takes us to get things as many of these releases took years to get here.	Which countries do Oscar voters prefer on a regular basis? Who are they in love with lately? Find out.
			My thanks to my loyal readers of this here website who contributed information on this year's foreign contenders (or speculation on possibilities prior to announcement): Aldo, Anthony, Ariel, Arkaan, Carlos, Carsten, Christian, Diego, Enrique, Felippe, Fernando, Geert, Irvin, Karol, Krister, Javi, Javier, Manolis, Marcelo, Marjobo, Michael, Mykkel, Patrick, Pepe, Ralph, Ryan, Sanan, Senad, Shay, Sina, Subhadeep, Tharadon, Thomas, Tony, Tuuli, Uri, and Vitor If you would like to have your name added to this list, send me info or links on the officially submitted films that I don't currently have much info on (see individual pages for missing info) by clicking on this little mail link. Come on, you know how this is done!

August
The most talked about news is that due to recent deadline changes (each country must choose a film released in their country by September's end instead of October's end as it was in previous years) Amélie successor A Very Long Engagement probably won't be eligible as France's submission. Another high profile contender, Tropical Malady looks to be in danger as well due to the Thailand government's recent conservative coup, putting a lock down on filmmakers abilities to deal with queer subject matter in their films. What a world...

July
The Foreign Pages are being updated regularly now with speculation as to submissions.

June
OKAY. Figure we should get started... Now that some readers from places abroad have begun to weigh in

Official Listings
Afghanistan to Estonia / Finland to Norway / Palestine to Venezuela
US Box Office for Foreign / Tally of past Oscar successes

Please note -imports in US theaters have next to nothing to do with eventual Oscar submission as we usually receive them after the fact which you'll see on the upcoming chart. In 2003's Oscars two of five nominees are still awaiting American release: Evil from Sweden and Twin Sisters from the Netherlands. Only 21% of the submissions from last year's competition have seen release in the USA. 2002's five nominees have all finally reached US screens with the release of Hero last month. Of that year's submission list only 40% eventually made it to the US screens. So sadly, at least 1/2 of the upcoming official submissions list we will never see. These pages are devoted to trying to raise the profile of this category so that we can eventually see more of them.