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The 2019 Oscars shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film revealed!

By Say Peng / 18 Dec 2018 (Tuesday)

Amongst the nine categories that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today in consideration for the 91st Oscars, one of them was for Best Foreign Language Film.

Here are the nine shortlisted films!

Japan, 'Shoplifters'

Winner of the Palme d'Or this year, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters is one of the best films of the year.

Returning to his recurring subject of family, Shoplifters follows the lives of a family who has to resort to shoplifting to survive.

The film has already been commercially released in Singapore. The Projector is still screening the film albeit in limited numbers.

South Korea, 'Burning'

Touted by many critics to win the Palme d'Or, Korean director Lee Chang-dong's Burning, unfortunately, walked away with no prizes despite universal critical acclaim.

Based on the short story 'Barn Burning' by Haruki Murakami, Burning is a highly unusual mystery thriller that follows Lee Jong-su who bumps into a girl who used to be his childhood neighbour. She asks him to look after her cat while on a trip to Africa. When she's back, she introduces him to Ben, a mysterious guy she met there, who turns out to have a secret hobby of burning barns.

The film has already been commercially released in Singapore.

Mexico, 'Roma'

Winner of this year's Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, Alfonso Cuaron's latest film Roma is his most personal film to date.

Based on his childhood, the film takes place in the early 1970s and follows the life of a middle-class family's maid in the Mexican city of Roma.

Roma is currently available to watch on Netflix.

Poland, 'Cold War'

Set during the Cold War in the 1950s, Polish director and Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War follows the life of a musical director who discovers a young singer and their subsequent love story over the years. The film is loosely inspired by the story of his parents.

Cold War will be released in Singapore by independent arthouse distributor Anticipate Pictures. A release date has not been announced.

Lebanon, 'Capernaum'

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival this year and the recipient of a 15-minute standing ovation, Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's Capernaum follows Zain, a 12-year-old boy who sues his parents for neglect.

Capernaum will be released in Singapore by independent arthouse distributor Anticipate Pictures. A release date has not been announced.

Denmark, 'The Guilty'

Directed by Danish director Gustav Möller, The Guilty, which won the Audience Award in World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival, follows a police officer who answers an emergency call of a kidnapped woman.

The Guilty will be released in Singapore by independent arthouse distributor Anticipate Pictures soon. For more info, visit their website.

Germany, 'Never Look Away'

Directed by German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Never Look Away is inspired by the life of German visual artist Gerhard Richter. The film follows art student Kurt Barnert in post-war East Germany. Having escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, Barnet is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.

The film competed at the Venice International Film Festival this year.

Colombia, 'Birds of Passage'

During the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture.

The follow up to his critically acclaimed Embrace of the Serpents, Ciro Guerra's Birds of Passage opened this year's Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Variety critic Peter Debruge called the film a "drug epic like you've never seen before".

Kazakhstan, 'Ayka'

Selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where its lead actress Samal Yeslyamova won the award for Best Actress, Ayka is the sophomore feature of Kazakh director Sergei Dvortsevoy.

Comparable to the Dardenne Brothers' Palme d'Or winner Rosetta, Ayka follows the eponymous character through the desolate economic landscape of Moscow as she struggles to survive.

David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock

Last year, Chilean director Sebastian Lelio's A Fantastic Woman won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Which film do you think will win the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film this year?

Let us know in the comments below!

Burning Shoplifters Roma Cold War The Guilty Birds of Passage Never Look Away Ayka

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The 2019 Oscars shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film revealed!