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Oscars 2018: Academy reveal best foreign film shortlist

The Square and Loveless lead the pack

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The Independent Culture

Awards season has almost begun, the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild announcing this year’s nominations. 

Of course, there’s huge amounts of anticipation for the crowning jewel, the Oscars. On Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for best foreign-language film, whittling down the 92 submitted movies to just none. 

Leading the pack comes Palme d’Or winner The Square, a satirical Swedish drama about an art installation. London Film Festival best film winner Loveless also secured a place on the shortlist, as did Chilean movie A Fantastic Woman.

Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018

Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018

  • 1/15 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

    Director: Martin McDonagh

    Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones

    Plot: In this darkly comic drama, a mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder, when they fail to catch the culprit.

  • 2/15 Call Me By Your Name

    Director: Luca Guadagnino

    Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg

    Plot: A young man named Elio, living in Italy during the 1980s, meets Oliver, an academic who has come to stay at his parents' villa, and a passionate relationship develops between them, as they bond over their sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the landscape.

  • 3/15 Dunkirk

    Director: Christopher Nolan

    Cast: Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance

    Plot: In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

  • 4/15 Get Out

    Director: Jordan Peele

    Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener

    Plot: This horror drama follows a young interracial couple who visit the girl's parents only for her boyfriend to uncover a conspiracy whereby young black adults are being captured.

  • 5/15 Downsizing

    Director: Alexander Payne

    Cast: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Waltz, Alec Baldwin

    Plot: A man and his wife join a community of miniaturized people after undergoing a process to shrink themselves.

  • 6/15 The Florida Project

    Director:Sean Baker

    Cast:Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince

    Plot: A precocious 6-year-old and her friends are homeless, living in extended-stay motels, but their summer is still filled with childhood wonder and adventure.

  • 7/15 The Post

    Director: Steven Spielberg

    Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Alison Brie, Sarah Paulson

    Plot: Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham of The Washington Post challenge the federal government for the right to publish classified information in 1971.

  • 8/15 The Shape of Water

    Director: Guillermo del Toro

    Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Doug Jones

    Plot: In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment.

  • 9/15 Molly's Game

    Director: Aaron Sorkin

    Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner

    Plot: The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.

    Courtesy of STXfilms

  • 10/15 The Big Sick

    Director: Michael Showalter

    Cast: Kumail Najiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano

    Plot: Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings.

  • 11/15 Mudbound

    Director: Dee Rees

    Cast: Jason Clarke, Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund

    Plot: This Netflix film follows two who men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.

  • 12/15 The Disaster Artist

    Director: James Franco

    Cast: James Franco, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Zac Efron

    Plot: A big screen re-enactment of the making of Tommy Wiseau's cult film The Room deemed 'the worst movie of all time.'

    Getty

  • 13/15 Phantom Thread

    Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

    Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps

    Plot: Set in 1950's London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.

  • 14/15 Lady Bird

    Director: Greta Gerwig

    Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein, Tracy Letts

    Plot: Gerwig's deirectorial debut is a coming-of-age story about a high-school senior (Ronan) and her turbulent relationship with her mother (Metcalf).

  • 15/15 Darkest Hour

    Director: Joe Wright

    Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn

    Plot: The film follows Winston Churchill's early days as Prime Minister while Hitler closes in on Britain during World War II.

See the full shortlist below.

Chile, A Fantastic Woman

Germany, In the Fade

Hungary, On Body and Soul

Israel, Foxtrot

Lebanon, The Insult

Russia, Loveless

Senegal, Félicité

South Africa, The Wound

Sweden, The Square

Meanwhile, the Oscar best-picture race still has no one frontrunner. Films expected to compete for the prize include The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Post, along with Dunkirk, Lady Bird, and Call Me By Your Name.