Latest in Oscars

With a record $96 million at the domestic boxoffice and $248 million worldwide, Warner Bros. Joker clearly triumphed in theaters this weekend, but how did it do with Oscar voters?  In the kind of early-October release slot the studio has used successfully to launch such boxoffice and awards magnets as A Star Is Born, A…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of countries that have submitted a pic for consideration for the new International Feature Film Oscar category. Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order: Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director; Algeria…

Mati Diop's Atlantics, the feature debut that won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has been submitted by Senegal to compete for the 2020 International Feature Film Oscar. The film already made history when Diop became the first black female director to be selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in…

Drama Hava, Maryam, Ayesha will represent Afghanistan in the best international film category at the Oscars. Directed by first-time female Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, the feminist drama is the story of three pregnant Afghan women from different social backgrounds who each experience different but connected…

Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor will be Italy's entry for the 2020 International Feature Film Oscar. The mafia drama tells the story of Tommaso Buscetta, a mafia informant in Sicily in the 1980s. Pierfrancesco Favino stars. The film premiered in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. As we revealed, Sony…

Antigone, the drama from Québécois writer-director Sophie Deraspe that just won the Best Canadian Feature Film prize for its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, has been selected to represent Canada in the 2020 Oscar International Feature Film race. The pic is hoping to become the ninth Canadian film to be…

Ladj Ly’s politically charged urban drama Les Miserables has been chosen to represent France in the Best International Feature Film category at the 92nd Oscars. The Cannes Jury Prize winner also recently played Toronto and is opening the COLCOA fest in Los Angeles at the DGA this Monday. It will release in the U.S…

Hard-hitting Venice Film Festival competition movie The Painted Bird has been selected by the Czech Film and Television Academy as the Czech Republic’s international Oscar entry. Described as an "evocation of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II," director-producer Václav Marhoul’s…

Last year's Toronto Film Festival entry The Chambermaid has been selected by the Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematograficas to represent Mexico at the 92nd Oscars. The film is the first feature directed by Lila Aviles. Kino Lorber has domestic rights. The story traces the daily routine and grand ambitions…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday selected 16 student as winners of the 46th Student Academy Awards. Medal placements — gold, silver and bronze — in the seven award categories will be revealed October 17 in a ceremony at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. This year’s winning films…

Milko Lazarov’s Ága, which had its world premiere in out of competition as the closing-night film of the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, was selected Tuesday by the Bulgarian National Cinema Council to represent Bulgaria in the upcoming Oscars International Feature Film race. Submissions for the Oscar category formerly…

Although most so-called Oscar pundits are solely focused on the films that hit the Fall film festival circuit which are buzzed to be 2019 Oscar contenders, there is an alternate track at the Toronto International Film Festival where you can also fill up on potential 2020 hopefuls. It is never too early, right? Thus…