The Oscars are adjusting the International Feature Film category (formerly the Foreign Language Film category) – making a key change to the voting process.
Since 2008, a shortlist of ten nominees are selected from an overall entry list of around 90-100 films. Academy members from all branches are invited to participate in the preliminary round and are eligible to vote in the category. To do so they must have viewed the submitted films theatrically and met a minimum viewing requirement.
The top seven voted on choices are then augmented by three additional selections voted on during a debate by the Academy’s International Feature Film Award Executive Committee. Those three selections are dubbed ‘saves’ and are basically there to ‘save’ a great film that many might not have seen.
This process was adopted after Romania’s celebrated “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” failed to make the shortlist during the 2007 film year. However, it has also failed to help save some notably great films that didn’t make the shortlist including “Gomorrah,” “Elle,” “Mommy,” “In a Better World,” “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” “BPM: Beats Per Minute,” “The Rocket,” “Wadjda,” “Two Days, One Night,” “Mother,” “Caesar Must Die,” “Under the Shadow,” “Chevalier,” “Zama,” “Dogman,” “The Wild Pear Tree,” and “I Am Not A Witch”.
This year the process will be changed. Gone are any ‘saves’ while the shortlist of 10 films that receive the highest number of votes will be expanded to 15. Major contenders this year include “Another Round,” “Dear Comrades”,” “La llorona,” and “Two of Us”.
Members who opted to vote for the international feature shortlist will take place on February 1st-5th. The 93rd nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on March 15th, with the telecast scheduled for April 25th.
Source: Variety
