2007 Oscars - announcement of foreign-language shortlist

[mathew5000]

As they did last year, AMPAS has announced a list of nine films that will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category.

The big news is going to be two of the films that are not on the list: Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. Both were eligible for the award, having been submitted by France and Romania respectively. (To be eligible, a film must be submitted by its country of origin; each country may submit only one film and 63 eligible films had been submitted.)

Of the nine on the list, I have seen only one, The Counterfeiters, which I briefly wrote about here.

The nine films on the shortlist are:

• The Counterfeiters / Die Fälscher (Austria);
• The Year My Parents Went on Vacation / O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (Brazil);
• Days of Darkness / L’Âge des ténèbres (Canada);
• Beaufort (Israel);
• The Unknown Woman / La Sconosciuta (Italy);
• Mongol (Kazakhstan);
• Katyn (Poland);
• 12 (Russia); and
• The Trap / Klopka (Serbia).

The five official nominees will be selected by a committee, from among these nine, and announced next week (Tuesday, January 22) with the rest of the Oscar nominees.