Oscar Predictions: Best International Feature – Will Any International Features Get Noms Outside the Category?
Contenders include 'Alcarràs,' 'Close,' 'Corsage,' 'EO' and 'Holy Spider'
FELIX VRATNY/Cannes Film Festival
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
LAST UPDATED: Nov. 10, 2022
2023 Oscars Predictions: Best International Feature
CATEGORY COMMENTARY: Could this be the most competitive year for the international feature category? Looks like it is based on the field that will only yield 15 films on the shortlist when the Academy names them in late December.
Are there any international features that can break outside of this category this year? “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Close” are somewhat in the best picture discussion while “Decision to Leave” feels like a lone director nom waiting to happen.
There are also acting possibilities such as Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”), who are factors as well.
The intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother. “Close” is a film about friendship and responsibility.
2
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
Edward Berger
Germany (OFFICIAL)
A young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.
3
“Saint Omer”
Alice Diop
France (OFFICIAL)
Follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don’t go as expected.
4
“Decision to Leave”
Park Chan-wook
South Korea (OFFICIAL)
A detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains meets the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
5
“Holy Spider”
Ali Abbasi
Denmark (OFFICIAL)
A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called “Spider Killer”, who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.
Next in Line
6
“Argentina, 1985”
Santiago Mitre
Argentina (OFFICIAL)
A team of lawyers take on the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.
7
“EO”
Jerzy Skolimowski
Poland (OFFICIAL)
Follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes.
8
“Klondike”
Maryna Er Gorbach
Ukraine (OFFICIAL)
The story of a Ukrainian family living on the border of Russia and Ukraine during the start of the war. Irka refuses to leave her house even as the village gets captured by armed forces. Shortly after they find themselves at the center of an international air crash catastrophe on July 17, 2014.
9
“Corsage”
Marie Kreutzer
Austria (OFFICIAL)
A fictional account of the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman and starts trying to maintain her public image, once idolized for her beauty.
10
“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Mexico (OFFICIAL)
A renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country.
