Latest in Oscars

Maite Alberdi's documentary The Mole Agent will represent Chile in the International Oscar race this year. The film debuted at Sundance back in January. It follows a private investigator in Chile who hires someone to work as a mole at a retirement home where a client of his suspects the caretakers of elder abuse…

When word seeped out this week that Netflix was considering adding Malcolm & Marie to its list of Oscar-contending movies for this year, shudders went through the competition from other distributors. Can one studio/distributor/streamer — whatever — possibly grab all five Best Actress Oscar slots? That would certainly…

Pop the champagne – the Danish Film Institute is sending Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round to the 2021 International Oscar race. The pic stars Mads Mikkelsen as one of a group of high school teachers who test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood. It was…

South Africa, Portugal and debutant Sudan are among the latest countries to make submissions to the 2021 International Oscar race. South Africa is putting forward Rene van Rooyen's Toorbos. The film, which is in Afrikaans, explores the uprooting of a young forest woman and her community during the time of the last…

The Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences has chosen Fernando Frías de la Parra’s I’m No Longer Here as Mexico’s official entry for the International Feature Film Oscar race. The pic centers on the young leader (Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino) of a small Monterrey street gang from the Cholombiano subculture…

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures just got a boost from Oregon animation studio Laika that put it over the top in fulfilling its pre-opening fundraising goal of $388 million and also has assured AMPAS members that it is on track to meet its planned April 30 opening date. Museum director and president Bill Kramer…

Norway has selected Maria Sodhal's Hope as its submission to the International Feature Film Oscar race. The drama world premiered in the Discovery section of the 2019 Toronto Film Festival and was screened in Panorama at Berlin this year. There, it took the Europa Cinemas Label Award and earlier this week garnered two…

In a little-noticed court filing last week, producer Michael Shamberg amended his existing complaint against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, arguing that Academy governors improperly deprived members of rights in June by restricting their ability to propose bylaws changes. Shamberg earlier had sued the…

Jayro Bustamente's politically charged horror film La Llorona, which won the Venice Days sidebar at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is Guatemala’s selection to the 2021 International Oscar race. It’s the second film by Bustamente to get his country’s Oscar submission, after his debut feature Ixcanul in 2015. His…

Greece on Wednesday selected Christos Nikou's Apples as the country’s official entry into the 2021 Oscar International Feature race. Nikou’s debut feature, which premiered as the opening-night film in the Horizons section of this year’s Venice Film Festival, has since been acquired by Cohen Media Group for…

Spain has submitted period epic The Endless Trench as its contender for the 2021 International Oscar prize. The film premiered at San Sebastian last year and Netflix swooped on its global rights shortly after; the streamer will debut the film in the U.S. on November 6. Directed by the trio of Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño…

Canada is sending Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy to this year's International Oscar race. The film is directed by Deepa Mehta, whose 2005 pic Water was Canada's submission that year and was Oscar nominated. Funny Boy, which is in Tamil, English and Sinhalese, depicts a young boy's sexual awakening in Sri Lanka during the…