Deadline’s Contenders Film: International Is Underway, Spotlighting 12 Movies In The Oscar Picture

Damon Wise
·4 min read
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Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event launches Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. PT, the latest in our series of showcases that this time turns the focus toward global cinema via discussions with the casts and creatives of 12 movies submitted by their countries for the 2024 Academy Awards’ International Feature race.

Click to sign up for and watch today’s livestream.

The 2023 Oscar ceremony was a triumph for international film. Going into the ceremony, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was a winner already, having earned a spectacular seven nominations. If that wasn’t enough, it came away with four statuettes: one for International Feature, and three for Cinematography, Music and Production Design. Clearly this can’t happen every year, but, like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite before it, Berger’s World War I epic proved that boundaries are being broken down, and international film, once synonymous with arthouse, is making commercial headway.

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Recent stats also show that the Academy is becoming a little more experimental in their taste. Historically, the Oscars has tended to favor Europe: since 1947, Italy has mustered 14 wins, with France close behind with 12. In third place comes Japan with three, so there’s everything to play for here. In recent times, the Oscar shortlist has made room for films from Bhutan (Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom), Tunisia (The Man Who Sold His Skin) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Quo Vadis, Aida?). Surprisingly, given the precarious state of world politics today and almost every day, the Academy tends not to be swayed by headlines, which means that political choices are by no means a safe bet.

RELATED: Deadline’s Contenders International – Full Coverage

With nearly 100 submissions this year competing for just five International Feature slots, it is a highly crowded field, and some foreign-language titles, like the UK’s Cannes favorite The Zone of Interest or the French Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall (which was passed over by France in favor of The Taste of Things), may take their chances alongside everyone else in the acting and tech categories. Deadline’s Contenders International, then, is not an exhaustive list, but it does illustrate the healthy state of cinema in all four corners of the globe, from personal stories, to thrillers, comedies, psychological dramas and flat-out spectacles.

From Australia we have Noora Niasar’s Shayda, from Belgium there’s Baloji’s Omen, from Bulgaria comes Stephan Komandarev’s Blaga’s Lessons (the big winner at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival). Egypt gives us Omar Hilal’s Voy! Voy! Voy!; Germany offers Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, a word-of-mouth hit at this year’s Berlinale; and from India there’s Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018 – Everyone Is a Hero.

Meanwhile, from Indonesia we have Makbul Mubarak’s Autobiography, The Netherlands provides us with Ena Sendijarević’s Sweet Dreams, and Poland has D.K. Welchman’s The Peasants. Making up for lost time, South Korea has another strong entry this year with Um Tae-hwa’s Concrete Utopia, while Spain has J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, and Switzerland rounds things off with Carmen Jaquier’s Thunder.

What’s clear is that this year is far from a one-horse race, with fewer familiar names in the mix than there has been for a while. So rather than try to out-think the Academy, tune in to check out some new and surprising voices. You’ll see things differently.

Follow along with today’s panel coverage on Deadline and our social channels using the hashtag #DeadlineContenders, and stay tuned for when we launch the streaming site Monday featuring all the panel videos.

Below is today’s panel lineup.

Contenders Film: International

9 am PT – Livestream begins/opening remarks

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

The Peasants (Poland)

Hugh Welchman (Writer/Director/Producer)

Shayda (Australia)

Noora Niasari (Writer/Director/Producer)
Coco Francini (EP)

The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)

llker Catak (Co-Writer/Director)

NETFLIX

Society of the Snow (Spain)

JA Bayona (Director/Writer/Producer)
Roberto Canessa (Survivor)
Belén Atienza (Producer)

815 PICTURES and LOTTE ENTERTAINMENT

Concrete Utopia (South Korea)

Um Tae-hwa (Director)
Lee Byung-hun (Actor)

SIDESHOW & JANUS FILMS

Voy! Voy! Voy! (Egypt)

Omar Hilal (Writer/Director/Producer)

LEMMING FILM

Sweet Dreams (Netherlands)

Ena Sendijarević (Writer/Director)
Renée Soutendijk (Actor)

ARGO FILM

Blaga’s Lessons (Bulgaria)

Stephan Komandarev (Director)
Eli Skorcheva (Actor)

UTOPIA

Omen (Belgium)

Baloji (Writer/Director)
Eliane Umuhire (Actor)

KAVYA FILM COMPANY

2018 – Everyone Is A Hero (India)

Jude Anthany Joseph (Writer/Director)
Venu Kunnappilly (Producer)

KAWAN KAWAN MEDIA

Autobiography (Indonesia)

Makbul Mubarak (Director)

CLOSE UP FILMS

Thunder (Switzerland)

Carmen Jaquier (Director)

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