International Oscar Submissions: Every Country’s Selection

Nepal’s International Feature Film Selection Committee has chosen Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog” as the country’s entry for the 99th Academy Awards.

The film marks Shah’s feature directorial debut and follows a Kinnar community in a Nepalese village fighting to protect itself. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it won the section’s Jury Prize, and also picked up nominations for the Caméra d’Or and the Queer Palm. The cast is led by Pushpa Thing Lama, Deepika Yadav, Jasmine Bishwokarma, Aliz Ghimire and Dura Sanjay Kumar Gupta.

The Oscars selection comes as “Elephants in the Fog” continues to expand its footprint in international markets. Sales company Best Friend Forever has closed deals in several territories, including MetFilm Distribution in the U.K., Filmin in Spain, Vedette in Benelux, Trigon in Switzerland, Lev Cinema in Israel, Jayantii in Australia, EFAR Films in India, PT Falcon in Indonesia and the Film Development Council of the Philippines, alongside an inflight deal with Silk Route. Those additions build on earlier deals covering France, Germany and Austria, Brazil and Nepal itself. The film is produced by Underground Talkies Nepal, Les Valseurs and Die Gesellschaft DGS.

“We Are All Strangers,” written and directed by Anthony Chen, has been selected as Singapore‘s entry in the international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.

Set in contemporary Singapore, the film centers on family relationships and unexpected life changes. It stars Chen’s frequent collaborators Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler, with Andi Lim and Regene Lim rounding out the cast. Earlier this year, it became the first Singaporean film selected for the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

“We Are All Strangers” completes Chen’s Growing Up trilogy, which began with “Ilo Ilo” in 2013 and continued with “Wet Season” in 2019. The two earlier films have collectively won more than 50 international accolades, including five Golden Horse Awards, along with “Ilo Ilo‘s” Caméra d’Or win at Cannes. Both films previously served as Singapore’s Oscars entries, at the 86th and 93rd Academy Awards respectively.

Moshe Rosenthal’s “Tell Me Everything” has been voted Best Picture at Israel’s Ophir Awards, automatically making it the country’s submission for best international feature film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

“Tell Me Everything,” set in the 1980s against the rising HIV epidemic, premiered at Sundance in the world cinema dramatic competition. It is Moshe Rosenthal’s sophomore feature. “Karaoke,” his directorial feature debut, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

“Tell Me Everything” follows Boaz (played by Yair Mazor), a 12-year-old who discovers a devastating secret about his father. Catching up with Boaz as an adult (played by “The Vanishing Soldier’s” Ido Tako), the film delves into their father-son relationship as they attempt to heal wounds and repair bonds. Assi Cohen (“Yossi & Jagger”) stars as Boaz’s father.

“Fjord,” written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, is Romania’s submission for the 2027 Oscars in the best international feature film category, having been unanimously chosen by the country’s selection committee.

The film premiered in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or for best film, the FIPRESCI Prize, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the Prix de la Citoyenneté and the François Chalais Prize.

Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star in the lead roles, with cinematography by Tudor Vladimir Panduru, editing by Mircea Olteanu, and production design by Simona Pădurețu.

“Aontas,” the Irish-language heist thriller from director Damian McCann, has been chosen as Ireland’s entry for the best international feature film category at the 2027 Academy Awards.

The film was selected by the Irish Film & TV Academy (IFTA) and a committee including “Evil Dead Rise” director Lee Cronin, “Derry Girls” creator Lisa McGee, BAFTA-nominated director Brian Kirk (“Game of Thrones), BAFTA nominated director Kathryn Ferguson (“Nothing Compares”), Emmy-winning actress and filmmaker Aisha Tyler (“Friends”), actress Fionnuala Flaherty (“Kneecap”) and IFTA chief executive Áine Moriarty.

Told in reverse chronology, “Aontas” follows three unlikely thieves, led by a woman on the verge of a breakdown, who rob a rural Irish bank. Opening in the tragic aftermath of the heist-gone-wrong. What starts as a poorly executed robbery becomes a portrait of a wilful woman trapped in her own past. It stars Carrie Crowley (“The Quiet Girl “), Bríd Brennan, Eva-Jane Gaffney, Seán T. Ó Meallaigh, Marcus Lamb and Art Parkinson.

Chile’s Film Academy has selected “The Meltdown” (“El deshielo”) by Manuela Martelli, her post-Pinochet mystery drama set in an Andes ski resort, to represent the country in the Best International Feature category at the 2027 Academy Awards. Martelli’s follow-up to her acclaimed drama “Chile, 1976” had its world premiere at Cannes’ prominent strand Un Certain Regard this year.

“The Meltdown” stars Maya O’Rourke – in her film debut – who plays a nine-year-old at her family’s ski resort who witnesses unsettling events that will test her loyalties. Other cast members are Paulina Urrutia, Mauricio Pešutić, Paula Zúñiga, Marcela Salinas and Lautaro Cantillana.

Hamaguchi Ryusuke‘s “All of a Sudden” has been selected as Japan’s entry in the international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren) has revealed.

The selection marks the second time a Hamaguchi film has represented Japan in the category, five years after “Drive My Car” won the international feature Oscar and picked up nominations for best picture, director and adapted screenplay at the 94th Academy Awards.

“All of a Sudden” is a France-Japan co-production made with backing from Germany and Belgium, shot largely in Paris. The film draws on “When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher With Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist,” a book of correspondence by Miyano Makiko and Isono Maho. It follows Marie-Lou Fontaine (Virginie Efira), who runs a nursing home outside Paris and pushes to adopt a more dignity-focused model of elderly care, and Morisaki Mari (Okamoto Tao), a Japanese theater director undergoing cancer treatment. Nagatsuka Kyōzō and Kurosaki Kōdai round out the cast.

Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime” has been selected as Germany’s entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film.

The film’s synopsis reads as follows: The last photograph Jessie took shows the sun over Berlin. It hangs there as if nothing had happened. But Ella has lost her daughter. What remains is Jessie’s younger sister and a complicated relationship with the boy everyone blames. The unlikely trio ends up on a family holiday that never really existed. Under the shimmering sun of Tenerife, memory and the present become inseparably intertwined. The ghosts are everywhere.

“Everytime” celebrated its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in May. Wollner’s third feature film, for which she also wrote the screenplay, was selected for the Un Certain Regard sidebar where it won the Prix Un Certain Regard, the section’s top award. Cannes was followed by invitations to the Sydney Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, among others. At the Sarajevo Film Festival, “Everytime” was awarded the Heart of Sarajevo Grand Prize. Its North American premiere will follow in September at the Toronto Film Festival. Other festival appearances include the New York Film Festival.

The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee (COSC) has selected “Becoming Human,” directed by Polen Ly, as the country’s official submission for the international feature film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

The film follows Thida, the spirit guardian of an aging cinema slated for demolition, as she weighs the choice of rebirth against her existence as a ghost. Her bond with Hai, a living man she meets along the way, pushes her to confront both her spiritual fate and a country in the midst of sweeping social change.

“Becoming Human” is Ly’s debut feature. He previously made the short film “Further and Further Away” in 2022 and the documentary “Until the Orchid Blooms,” which premiered at IDFA in 2024 and won the grand prize at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2026. The cast is led by 15-year-old newcomer and dance student Savorn Serak alongside Piseth Chhun, who won the Venice Horizons award for best actor in 2021 for his role in Kavich Neang’s “White Building.”

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has selected “Possible Love,” directed by Lee Chang-dong, as South Korea‘s official entry for the international feature film category at the 2027 Academy Awards.

“Possible Love” marks Lee’s first feature in eight years, following “Burning,” “Poetry” and “Secret Sunshine.” The film centers on two married couples whose lives intersect after a funeral: Mi-ok and her laid-off husband Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), who live quietly with their young son Cheol, and Ye-ji, a filmmaker making a documentary about workers who lost their jobs, and her husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). When Mi-ok agrees to be filmed by Ye-ji, the two women grow close, while Mi-ok finds herself unsettled by an attraction to Sang-woo. As the two couples’ worlds overlap, cracks begin to surface in both marriages.

In its evaluation, the committee cited the film’s polished craftsmanship and the clarity of its directorial vision, pointing to the tone and mise-en-scène that sustain a sense of pressure throughout the story. The drama was described as prompting reflection on gentle forms of violence, incomplete freedom and the nature of true happiness, alongside a labor movement sequence that the committee said captured layered social undercurrents.

“Like a Limbless Tree,” an intimate social drama directed by Tunç Davut, has been selected as Turkey‘s entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film.

Davut, whose previous works include the 2015 drama “Entanglement and TV series “Serçe” and “Kinali Kuzular,” delves into the fragility of human existence against a backdrop of the theme of immigration in “Like a Limbless Tree.” The film is produced by Istanbul-based Tekhne Film and stars Ali Ipin, Fayyaz Duman and Selen Kurtaran.

Davut’s drama – which won an award at the Bosphorus Film Festival and was selected for the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and the Ankara Film Festival – is about a retired engineer named Refik whose life changes forever after being diagnosed with a terminal disease just as his Syrian caregiver disappears while attempting to flee to Europe, leaving him in charge of her two children.

Andrius Blaževičius’ “How to Divorce During the War” has been selected as Lithuania’s entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film.

Blaževičius’ third feature won the directing award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was picked up for theatrical distribution in North America by Zeitgeist Films, in association with Kino Lorber, and will be released on Aug. 21.

Set in Vilnius in 2022, it’s a story of a high-flying executive Marija, who chooses the worst possible moment for an honest conversation with her husband Vytas about divorcing – just one day before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine goes into full scale. Now the couple must navigate the process of separation as it collides with a refugee and mid-life crisis.