Oscars announce shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film, leaving off 'The Past'

Published on December 20, 2013 in Entertainment Weekly

By Jeff Labrecque

Full Coverage of OSCAR:
http://www.ew.com/ew/package/0,,20311937,00.html

Nine movies advanced to the next round of Oscar voting for Best Foreign Language Film, but The Past was not one of them. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi had won the category for his previous film, A Separation, and his latest was considered a favorite to be recognized again.

Also missing from the list was festival favorite Blue Is the Warmest Color, although that buzzy movie had failed to make the cut-off date for eligibility and was not included for consideration.

But enough about who’s not going to win the Oscar. The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelson made the cut.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

• Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, director
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, director
• Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, director
• Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, director
• Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas, director
• Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, director
• Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz, director
• Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, director
• Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, director

These nine movies were selected from a longer list of 76 submitted films, no more than one from each country. In order to nominate five films on Jan. 16, “specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles” will spend Jan. 10-12 screening the nine shortlisted films to determine which five will make the final cut.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/12/20/oscars-shortlist-best-foreign-language-film/