Latest in Contenders International

The 15-strong shortlist for the Oscars’ International Feature Film category is due on Tuesday, so it's time to run down my annual preview of titles that have a good shot at making the cut. Films from a total 93 countries are eligible in the race this year, and below we take a close look at a selection of them. As…

Deadline has launched the stand-alone streaming site for Contenders Film: International, featuring the 26 panels from Saturday’s all-day virtual showcase of key titles entered into the International Feature Oscar race. This year’s panel lineup included appearances by the likes of Javier Bardem, Noomi Rapace, Asghar…

It took eight years and a very enticing look book before Lamb co-writer and director Valdimar Jóhannsson got Iceland’s current Oscar entry off the ground. The A24 theatrical release follows a childless couple, Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), who are desolate sheep farmers in the cold…

Starring newcomer Erik Enge, Black Spark Film's Tigers tells the extraordinary true story of Swedish soccer star Martin Bengtsson, who made his international debut at just 17 years old. In stark contrast to many other sporting movies, which tend to focus on stories of triumph over adversity, Ronnie Sandahl's movie…

Escape From Mogadishu, Korea’s submission to this year’s International Feature Oscar race, tells the harrowing true story of North and South Koreans caught in the middle of a brutal civil war in Somalia in 1991, and how the divided nation worked together to survive the crisis in a foreign land. Director Ryoo Seung-wan…

The sobering story of Pebbles, about domestic violence in India, is inspired by an incident in filmmaker P.S. Vinothraj’s real-life past, in which his sister was "chased away by her husband" and forced to walk 14 miles whilst cradling her baby in scorching terrain. In Pebbles, set in a sun-baked, drought-stricken…

Zátopek, David Ondricek's biopic about multi-Olympic champion runner Emil Zátopek, become a box office champ in the Czech Republic when it released late last August and is also repping the country in the race for the International Feature Oscar. The story sees Australian runner Ron Clarke (James Frecheville), after…

Filmed with an international cast speaking French, English and Spanish, and co-written with cinematographer Sara Mishara, Ivan Grbovic's Drunken Birds begins in urban, crime-infested Mexico and swiftly transports us to the rural farmlands of Quebec, where former drug runner Willy has come in search of a former lover…

Ivan Ikić's second feature Oasis is representing Serbia in the International Feature Oscar race this year following its buzzy premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The pic explores how a friendship between Marija (Marijana Novakov) and Dragana (Tijana Markovic) is put to the test, as they both develop a crush on…

Filmed in the mountains of Greece — which doubled for the stark, alien landscapes of war-torn Afghanistan — Shariff Korver's Do Not Hesitate tells the story of three young Dutch soldiers who are left guarding a military vehicle after it breaks down. A chance encounter with a local boy causes tensions in the group…

Lana Barić joined director Danilo Šerbedžija at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event to talk about the taboo-busting Tereza37, Croatia's official candidate for the International Feature Oscar. The film centers on Barić’s character Tereza, a married woman who decides to sleep with multiple…

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has long been an ambassador for his native Thailand, but his latest film—the Cannes Competition hit Memoria—was shot entirely in Colombia, which has chosen the film as its 2021 International Feature Oscar entry. Compounding the truly international flavor of the production, it stars the UK’s…