Every winter, Oscar watchers say that this or that category is especially competitive this year. But no competition at the Academy Awards is as reliably and inherently brutal as the one for best foreign-language film. For this globe-spanning category, each nation is allowed to submit one and only one film to represent its entire cinematic output for the year. That’s the case whether the country is France (which boasts more than 250 film productions in a year) or Yemen (where feature films are rare). For 2016, a record 85 countries successfully submitted films for the process of consideration as nominees. These will be winnowed to a shortlist, until finally, a mere five films will be announced as nominees on Jan. 24.

That’s less selective than it is biblical: The closest comparison for the one-country-one-film rule might be Noah’s Ark. Yet the category remains a welcome celebration of world cinema, allowing lucky nominees to share the spotlight alongside Hollywood’s heavyweights. This year, the field looks not only promising but robust.

A few titles keep rising to the top as eligible films wended their way through international festivals and then began to face tests at the box office and among critics. The list of predictions should begin with two highly acclaimed and unusual comedies. The German “Toni Erdmann,” from the director Maren Ade, has demonstrated rare potential as both a critics’ darling and a proven crowd-pleaser with its imaginative story about a frustrated young professional coming to grips with her life and her crazy-like-a-fox father. The nearly-three-hour movie doesn’t open until later this month in the United States, but last week the New York Film Critics Circle pinned it with its best foreign film blue ribbon.