The 85 entrants for next year’s foreign language Oscar have been announced – which beats the previous record of 83, from 2014. A shortlist of nine will be revealed in December, before five nominees are unveiled along with the other Oscar nominations on 24 January. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on 26 February.



Key contenders at this stage include Toni Erdmann, the three-hour German comedy reckoned by many to have deserved the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival, and Elle, a rape revenge comedy directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Isabelle Huppert, also a hit at Cannes.

Familiar names include Asghar Farhadi, whose film A Separation won the Oscar – Iran’s first – in 2011 and is back in contention with The Salesman, as well as Pedro Almodóvar, for Julieta. Two key, politically contentious films are also on the list: Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary about life on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa amid the migrant crisis; and Clash, Mohamed Diab’s thriller set inside an Egyptian police van in 2013 as post-revolution tensions boil over.

This year’s prize was won by László Nemes’s harrowing Auschwitz-set drama Son of Saul.

The full list of submissions

Albania: Chromium (directed by Bujar Alimani)

Algeria: The Well (dir Lotfi Bouchouchi)

Argentina: The Distinguished Citizen (dir Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat)

Australia: Tanna (dir Bentley Dean, Martin Butler)

Austria: Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (dir Maria Schrader)

Bangladesh: The Unnamed (dir Tauquir Ahmed)

Belgium: The Ardennes (dir Robin Pront)

Bolivia: Sealed Cargo (dir Julia Vargas Weise)

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Death in Sarajevo (dir Danis Tanovic)

Brazil: Little Secret (dir David Schurmann)

Bulgaria: Losers (dir Ivaylo Hristov)

Cambodia: Before the Fall (dir Ian White)

Canada: It’s Only the End of the World (dir Xavier Dolan)

Chile: Neruda (dir Pablo Larraín)

China: Xuan Zang (dir Huo Jianqi)

Colombia: Alias Maria (dir José Luis Rugeles)

Costa Rica: About Us (dir Hernán Jiménez)

Croatia: On the Other Side (dir Zrinko Ogresta)

Cuba: The Companion (dir Pavel Giroud)

Czech Republic: Lost in Munich (dir Petr Zelenka)

Denmark: Land of Mine (dir Martin Zandvliet)

Dominican Republic: Sugar Fields (dir Fernando Báez)

Ecuador: Such Is Life in the Tropics (dir Sebastián Cordero)

Egypt: Clash (dir Mohamed Diab)

Estonia: Mother (dir Kadri Kõusaar)

Finland: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (dir Juho Kuosmanen)

France: Elle (dir Paul Verhoeven)

Georgia: House of Others (dir Rusudan Glurjidze)

Germany: Toni Erdmann (dir Maren Ade)

Greece: Chevalier (dir Athina Rachel Tsangari)

Hong Kong: Port of Call (dir Philip Yung)

Hungary: Kills on Wheels (dir Attila Till)

Iceland: Sparrows (dir Rúnar Rúnarsson)

India: Interrogation (dir Vetri Maaran)

Indonesia: Letters from Prague (dir Angga Dwimas Sasongko)

Iran: The Salesman (dir Asghar Farhadi)

Iraq: El Clásico (dir Halkawt Mustafa)

Israel: Sand Storm (dir Elite Zexer)

Italy: Fire at Sea (dir Gianfranco Rosi)

Japan: Nagasaki: Memories of My Son (dir Yoji Yamada)

Jordan: 3000 Nights (dir Mai Masri)

Kazakhstan: Amanat (dir Satybaldy Narymbetov)

Kosovo: Home Sweet Home (dir Faton Bajraktari)

Kyrgyzstan: A Father’s Will (dir Bakyt Mukul, Dastan Zhapar Uulu)

Latvia: Dawn (dir Laila Pakalnina)

Lebanon: Very Big Shot (dir Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya)

Lithuania: Seneca’s Day (dir Kristijonas Vildziunas)

Luxembourg: Voices from Chernobyl (dir Pol Cruchten)

Macedonia: The Liberation of Skopje (dir Rade Šerbedžija, Danilo Šerbedžija)

Malaysia: Beautiful Pain (dir Tunku Mona Riza)

Mexico: Desierto (dir Jonás Cuarón)

Montenegro: The Black Pin (dir Ivan Marinović)

Morocco: A Mile in My Shoes (dir Said Khallaf)

Nepal: The Black Hen (dir Min Bahadur Bham)

Netherlands: Tonio (dir Paula van der Oest)

New Zealand: A Flickering Truth (dir Pietra Brettkelly)

Norway: The King’s Choice (dir Erik Poppe)

Pakistan: Mah-e-Mir (dir Anjum Shahzad)

Palestine: The Idol (dir Hany Abu-Assad)

Panama: Salsipuedes (dir Ricardo Aguilar Navarro, Manolito Rodríguez)

Peru: Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) (dir Juan Daniel F. Molero)

Philippines: Ma’ Rosa (dir Brillante Ma Mendoza)

Poland: Afterimage (dir Andrzej Wajda)

Portugal: Letters from War (dir Ivo M. Ferreira)

Romania: Sieranevada (dir Cristi Puiu)

Russia: Paradise(dir Andrei Konchalovsky)

Saudi Arabia: Barakah Meets Barakah (dir Mahmoud Sabbagh)

Serbia: Train Driver’s Diary (dir Milos Radovic)

Singapore: Apprentice (dir Boo Junfeng)

Slovakia: Eva Nová (dir Marko Skop)

Slovenia: Houston, We Have a Problem! (dir Žiga Virc)

South Africa: Call Me Thief (dir Daryne Joshua)

South Korea: The Age of Shadows (dir Kim Jee-woon)

Spain: Julieta (dir Pedro Almodóvar)

Sweden: A Man Called Ove (dir Hannes Holm)

Switzerland: My Life as a Zucchini (dir Claude Barras)

Taiwan: Hang in There, Kids! (dir Laha Mebow)

Thailand: Karma (dir Kanittha Kwunyoo)

Turkey: Cold of Kalandar (dir Mustafa Kara)

Ukraine: Ukrainian Sheriffs (dir Roman Bondarchuk)

United Kingdom: Under the Shadow (dir Babak Anvari)

Uruguay: Breadcrumbs (dir Manane Rodríguez)

Venezuela: From Afar (dir Lorenzo Vigas)

Vietnam: Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass (dir Victor Vu)

Yemen: I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced (dir Khadija Al-Salami)