To announce the nine films of its Best Foreign Language Movie Award, the members of the Academy had to select six films, with an additional three selected by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, from the 65 films submitted by 65 countries.
The nine films selected for the Best Foreign Language Movie Award are:
El Secreto de Sus Ojus (Argentina, director Juan Jose Campanella)
Samson & Delilah (Australia, director Warwick Thornton)
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Bulgaria, director Stephan Komandarev)
A Prophet (France, director Jacques Audiard)
The White Ribbon (Germany, director Michael Haneke)
Ajami (Israel, directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani)
Kelin (Kazakhstan, director Ermek Tursunov)
Winter in Wartime (The Netherlands, director Martin Koolhoven)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru, director Claudia Llosa)
As usual, the Academy has surprised many critics by ignoring a few outstanding movies such as About Eli, Letters to Father Jacob, and I killed my Mother.