Nine Foreign Language Films Still Alive

Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category (BFLF) for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Sixty-five films originally qualified in the category.

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

Argentina - EL SECRETO DO SUS OJOS (The Secret of Your Eyes), Juan Jose Campanella;

Australia - SAMSON & DELILAH, Warwick Thornton;

Bulgaria - THE WORLD IS BIG AND SALVATION LURKS AROUND THE CORNER, Stephan Komandarev;

France - UN PROPHÈTE (A Prophet), Jacques Audiard;

** Germany - THE WHITE RIBBON (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke;

Israel - AJAMI, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani;

Kazakhstan - KELIN, Ermek Tursunov;

The Netherlands - WINTER IN WARTIME, Martin Koolhoven;

Peru - THE MILK OF SORROW, Claudia Llosa.

** Winner this year of the Golden Globes® for Best Foreign Language Film, and won Best Film last May in Cannes.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2009 are again being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 65 eligible films between mid-October and January 16. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

The above shortlist will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. Those committees will spend Friday, 29 January, through Sunday, 31 January, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots. From those ballots will come the final five nominees.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 2 February, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, and Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, 7 March 7.