France’s “Emilia Pérez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” have been named to the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category, retaining their frontrunner status in a race that had fewer high-profile contenders than usual this year.
Other films on the list are Canada’s “Universal Language,” the Czech Republic’s “Waves,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Italy’s “Vermiglio,” Latvia’s “Flow,” Norway’s “Armand,” Palestine’s “From Ground Zero,” Senegal’s “Dahomey,” Thailand’s “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” and the United Kingdom’s “Santosh.”
“Flow” is the only animated film on the list, while “Dahomey” is the only documentary. The Palestinian selection, “From Ground Zero,” is the most unusual of the shortlisted films, consisting of 22 separate short films made over the last year by directors living in Gaza.
As usual, the list was heavily European, with 10 of the shortlisted films coming from Europe, two from Asia and one each from North America, South America and Africa.
While Palestine and Thailand were in some ways the unlikeliest nominees, the list for the most part stuck to the films that were favored going into the vote. The most notable contenders not to make the shortlist were Mexico’s “Sujo,” Sweden’s “The Last Journey,” Portugal’s “Grand Tour,” Belgium’s “Julie Keeps Quiet” and India’s “Lost Ladies,” which that country’s submission committee chose over the critical favorite “All We Imagine as Light.”
Two of the films come from directors who’ve had movies nominated for Oscars in the past: The director of “Emilia Pérez,” Jacques Audiard, also directed “A Prophet,” which was nominated in the category in 2009, while “I’m Still Here” director Walter Salles’ “Central Station” was nominated in 1998.
Another of the shortlisted directors, Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (“Armand”), is the grandson of Ingmar Bergman, whose films won this award three times (“The Virgin Spring,” “Through a Glass Darkly” and “Fanny and Alexander”), second only to four-time winners Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini.
This year’s field consisted of 85 films, the fewest to qualify in the category in nine years.
The selections were made by volunteers from all branches of the Academy, who were separated into seven groups and assigned 12 or 13 films as required viewing. Voters who watched everything from their group were also free to see and vote for any films from other groups, with the 15 films that scored best using ranked-choice voting advancing to the shortlist.
In the past, an executive committee would look at the voters’ choices and add three additional films to the list, a system designed to let more challenging films advance. But with those executive committee “saves” no longer possible, the list of shortlisted films has become fairly predictable, with the highest-profile films almost invariably advancing.
Here is the full shortlist:
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”
A second round of voting will narrow the field to five nominees. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17, 2025, with the 97th Academy Awards taking place on March 2.
See the other Oscar shortlists, below.
