Oscars 2025: Great Choices/Few Surprises Among the International Feature Oscar Short List 15

The Academy announced short lists in 10 categories today including International Feature. Here are the 15 films that are moving on to the final voting:

Brazil, I’m Still Here

Canada, Universal Language

Czech Republic, Waves

Denmark, The Girl with the Needle

France, Emilia Pérez

Germany, The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Iceland, Touch

Ireland, Kneecap

Italy, Vermiglio

Latvia, Flow

Norway, Armand

Palestine, From Ground Zero

Senegal, Dahomey

Thailand, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

United Kingdom, Santosh

The Academy, for the most part, did a terrific job choosing the best this year. And while some amazing work was overlooked such as Three Kilometres to the End of the World (Romania), Come Closer (Israel) and Abang Adik (Malaysia)—to just cite three— the inclusion of Waves (Czechia), Armand (Norway), Universal Language (Canada) and Touch (Iceland) has me giddy and proves AMPAS members actually watched these gems and did their due diligence.

That said, we do need more representation from other areas of the world like Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Nominations in this category should be set at 10. And as I mention in detail in my International Feature analysis, there are six countries with the most nominations and wins in the 68 years that the category has been competitive (honorary awards were given prior to 1956)—five are European. Those countries are France (39 nominations, 12 wins, including 3 honorary), Italy (30 nominations, 14 wins, including 3 honorary), Germany (22 nominations, 4 wins), Spain (21 nominations, 4 wins), Japan (18 nominations, 5 wins, including 3 honorary) and Denmark (4 wins, 15 nominations). Four of those six made this year’s short list. But it would be hard to argue omitting any of them.

The three films that prognosticators have cited as being assured nominations, of course, made the list: I’m Still Here (Brazil), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany) and Emilia Pérez (France). And the two features that may round out the final five are Vermiglio(Italy) and The Girl with the Needle (Denmark).

I was a bit surprised The Last Journey (Sweden), and Memory Lane (The Netherlands) were left off, but it was nice to see Thailand make the short list for the very first time with the charming How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

Flow (Latvia) is the only animated entry to be short listed and it may stand a much better chance in the Animated Feature category, while Dahomey, the one real doc feature, has a better shot in the Documentary Feature category where it has also been short listed.

The one head scratcher here is From Ground Zero (Palestine) mostly because it’s not a feature film but a series of short films (some super short) from 22 directors that all deal with survival in Gaza. This choice feels more politically motivated than actually merited.

Three of the five countries represented last year are back to compete, Italy (Io capitano), Germany (The Teacher’s Lounge) and the UK (The Zone of Interest, last year’s winner).

As someone who had the privilege of viewing 81 of 85 of the entries, I am mostly thrilled with this list. You can read my analysis here.

Nominations voting begins Jan. 8, 2025, at 9am PST and ends Jan. 12, 2025, at 5pm PST. I urge members to watch all 15. Hopefully there may be a surprise or two come the morning of January 17, 2025, when the nominations are revealed.

My final 5 predictions remain:

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Germany

Emilia Pérez, France

I’m Still Here, Brazil

Vermiglio, Italy

The Girl with the Needle, Denmark

My 5 Favorites are:

I’m Still Here, Brazil

Armand, Norway

Waves, Czechia

Universal Language, Canada

Vermiglio, Italy

Runner-up: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Germany