2025 Oscars: Complete list of Best International Feature Film submissions
Selection committees from countries around the world had until 5pm on October 2, 2024 to submit their entry for Best International Feature at the 2025 Oscars. Films submitted must meet the eligibility criteria and qualify between November 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024. From this group, a shortlist of 15 contenders will be revealed on December 17, 2024 and the five Oscar nominees will be announced on January 17, 2025.
Below are details on the 85 films selected.
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Albania
Title: “Waterdrop”
Director: Robert Budina
Language: Albanian, Italian
Synopsis: Aida, 45, a city hall manager in a small Albanian town by Lake Ohrid, is forced to face her own complicity when her son Mark, 15, is involved in a rape scandal that could send him to jail.
Algeria
Title: “Algiers”
Director: Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
Language: Arabic, French
Synopsis: The kidnapping of a little girl creates tension and suspicion in Algiers. Only Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a police inspector, can unearth the demons of the past.
Argentina
Title: “Kill the Jockey”
Director: Luis Ortega
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Remo’s self-destructive behavior overshadows his talent. Abril, an upcoming jockey is pregnant by Remo and has to decide between child or continuing to race. They both race for Sirena, an businessman who saved Remo’s life in the past.
Armenia
Title: “Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev”
Director: Edgar Baghdasaryan
Language: Armenian, Russian
Synopsis: When a hard working soviet worker realizes how disappointing his pension is, he starts talking to the Secretary General of the USSR and hanging out with the top communist figures from all over the world.
Austria
Title: “The Devil’s Bath”
Director: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
Language: German
Synopsis: Austria in the 18th century. Forests surround villages. Killing a baby gets a woman sentenced to death. Agnes readies for married life with her beloved. But her mind and heart grow heavy. A gloomy path alone, evil thoughts arising.
Bangladesh
Title: “The Wrestler”
Director: Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury
Language: Bengali
Synopsis: An elderly man from a fishing village who challenges a wrestling champion to combat.
Belgium
Title: “Julie Keeps Quiet”
Director: Leonardo Van Dijl
Language: Dutch, French
Synopsis: Julie is a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club’s players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet.
Bolivia
Title: “Own Hand”
Director: Gory Pati?o
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: A prosecutor, a father and his son fight to survive and seek justice in the midst of a mob-driven lynching in a Bolivian town, exposing the dangerous consequences of vigilante justice.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Title: “My Late Summer”
Director: Danis Tanovi?
Language: Croatian
Synopsis: When Maja arrives on a remote island to resolve the issue of family inheritance, she doesn’t expect to stay there longer than she planned.
Brazil
Title: “I’m Still Here”
Director: Walter Salles
Language: Portuguese
Synopsis: Brazil, 1971: a country in the tightening grip of a military dictatorship. A mother is forced to reinvent herself when her family’s life is shattered by an act of arbitrary violence.
Bulgaria
Title: “Triumph”
Director: Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov
Language: Bulgarian
Synopsis: After the Fall of Communism in the early 1990s, a classified task force of high-rank Bulgarian Army officers led by a psychic channeler starts digging a hole in search of a mysterious artifact which will bring about the ultimate triumph.
Cambodia
Title: “Meeting with Pol Pot”
Director: Rithy Panh
Language: French, Khmer
Synopsis: Three French journalists travel to Cambodia in 1978 after receiving an invitation from the Khmer Rouge regime, embarking on a perilous adventure.
Cameroon
Title: “Kismet”
Director: Ngang Romanus Ntseh
Language: Cameroonian Pidgin English
Synopsis: Amidst religious tensions and societal norms, a courageous young woman risks everything to bridge the gap between two warring factions and protect her love.
Canada
Title: “Universal Language”
Director: Matthew Rankin
Language: French, Persian
Synopsis: Two women find frozen cash, try to retrieve it. A tour guide leads confused tourists around Winnipeg sites. A man quits his job, visits his mother. Storylines intertwine surreally as identities blur in a disorienting comedy.
Chile
Title: “In Her Place”
Director: Maite Alberdi
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Chile, 1955. The case of María Carolina Geel, a popular writer who murders her lover, captivates Mercedes, a shy secretary working for the judge assigned to defend the accused.
Colombia
Title: “La Suprema”
Director: Felipe Holguin
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: In a remote village without electricity, a teenager convinces a whole town to find a way of watching her estranged uncle compete in a world championship boxing match.
Costa Rica
Title: “Memories of a Burning Body”
Director: Antonella Sudasassi
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Ana, Patricia and Mayela grow up when sexuality is taboo. Now channeled as one 65-year-old, the protagonist revisits intertwined memories, secrets and desires, giving voice to unspoken past experiences.
Croatia
Title: “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day”
Director: Ivona Juka
Language: Croatian
Synopsis: Four friends rebelled against the Nazi regime and joined the NOB. Sixteen years later, they are renowned artists who feel entitled to criticize the society they fought for.
Czech Republic
Title: “Waves”
Director: Ji?í Mádl
Language: Czech
Synopsis: A compromising record can change history. Will you sacrifice your family for your country?
Denmark
Title: “The Girl with the Needle”
Director: Magnus von Horn
Language: Danish
Synopsis: Copenhagen 1919: A young worker finds herself unemployed and pregnant. She meets Dagmar, who runs an underground adoption agency. A strong connection grows but her world shatters when she stumbles on the shocking truth behind her work.
Dominican Republic
Title: “Aire: Just Breathe”
Director: Leticia Tonos
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: In a nearby future a conservation biologist battles extinction with the help of an A.I., but after the arrival of an enigmatic traveler with a hidden past, the tension in this ménage à trois will be as toxic as the world they live in.
Ecuador
Title: “Behind the Mist”
Director: Sebastián Cordero
Language: Spanish, English, Nepali
Synopsis: Iván Vallejo, the first Ecuadorian to conquer Everest (in 1999), decides to make a film commemorating his journey and invites Sebastián Cordero, an Ecuadorian filmmaker who premiered his debut feature in Venice the same year Iván achieved his feat.
Egypt
Title: “Flight 404”
Director: Hani Khalifa
Language: Arabic
Synopsis: Days before traveling to Mecca for HAJJ, Ghada is faced with an emergency and needs a large sum of money. She must return to a tainted past and keep it from consuming her.
Estonia
Title: “8 Views of Lake Biwa”
Director: Marko Raat
Language: Estonian
Synopsis: On the shimmering shores of Europe’s otherworldly edge, two teenage girls, Hanake and her best friend are discussing their first love interest while gazing out at yachts sailing to Kyoto. They whisper prayers and poems, the language of their longings. But the magic is fading in their isolated fishing village as they come to terms with a recent disaster.
Finland
Title: “Family Time”
Director: Tia Kouvo
Language: Finnish
Synopsis: An annual family Christmas get-together that sees the usual tensions rise.
France
Title: “Emilia Pérez”
Director: Jacques Audiard
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: In Mexico, a lawyer receives an unexpected offer to help a feared cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamed of being.
Georgia
Title: “The Antique”
Director: Rusudan Glurjidze
Language: Georgian, Russian
Synopsis: Lado, a Georgian smuggler, transports antiques to St. Petersburg, where he meets Medea, an immigrant at an antique workshop. Vadim, a lonely elderly man, bonds with Medea. Their lives intersect amidst smuggling, survival, and connection.
Germany
Title: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Language: Persian
Synopsis: Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.
Greece
Title: “Murderess”
Director: Eva Nathena
Language: Greek
Synopsis: Based on the classic by Alexandros Papadiamantis, “Murderess” takes place on a remote island in Greece, circa 1900. There, Hadoula, trapped in her own mother’s rejection, struggles to survive the dictates of a patriarchal society.
Guatemala
Title: “Rita”
Director: Jayro Bustamante
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Rita, a 13-year-old girl, runs away from her abusive father to the big city. She finds solace until she’s placed in a safe house run by the State. Rita and her cellmates plot an escape that ends in a shocking act of violence.
Hong Kong
Title: “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”
Director: Soi Cheang
Language: Cantonese, Teochew Min, Japanese
Synopsis: Follows troubled youth Chan Lok-kwun as he accidentally enters the Walled City, discovers the order amidst its chaos, and learns important life lessons along the way.
Hungary
Title: “Semmelweis”
Director: Lajos Koltai
Language: Hungarian
Synopsis: In 1847 a mysterious epidemic is raging in a maternity clinic in Vienna, while the doctor Ignác Semmelweis tries to defeat puerperal fever by going against all traditional theories.
Iceland
Title: “Touch”
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Language: English, Japanese, Icelandic
Synopsis: A romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents; Touch follows one man’s emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago, before his time runs out.
India
Title: “Laapataa Ladies”
Director: Kiran Rao
Language: Hindi
Synopsis: The misadventures of two young brides who get lost from the same train. From mistaken identities to laugh-out-aloud escapades, the ensuing chaos guarantees laughter galore and heartwarming moments.
Indonesia
Title: “Women from Rote Island”
Director: Jeremias Nyangoen
Language: Rote
Synopsis: Recently widowed Orpa, living with her two daughters, Martha and Bertha, confronts discrimination and tradition, striving for justice after both of her daughters experience sexual violence.
Iran
Title: “In the Arms of the Tree”
Director: Babak Lotfi Khajepasha
Language: Persian
Synopsis: The life crisis of Kimia and Farid, who have been married for twelve years, destroys the world of their children. Children who know nothing but kindness in life.
Iraq
Title: “Baghdad Messi”
Director: Sahim Omar Kalifa
Language: Arabic, Kurdish
Synopsis: In war-torn Iraq, a ten-year-old boy with a crippling injury has an unquenchable passion for football.
Ireland
Title: “Kneecap”
Director: Rich Peppiatt
Language: Irish, English
Synopsis: When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed ‘low life scum’ Naoise and Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.
Israel
Title: “Come Closer”
Director: Tom Nesher
Language: Hebrew
Synopsis: When Eden’s brother tragically dies, her grief spirals into obsession after discovering his secret girlfriend. A haunting exploration of love, loss and fixation with stunning visuals.
Italy
Title: “Vermiglio”
Director: Maura Delpero
Language: Italian
Synopsis: 1944, Vermiglio, a remote mountain village. The arrival of Pietro, a deserter, into the family of the local teacher, and his love for the teacher’s eldest daughter, will change the course of everyone’s life.
Japan
Title: “Cloud”
Director: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Language: Japanese
Synopsis: Yoshii, a young man who resells goods online, finds himself at the center of a series of mysterious events that put his life at risk.
Kazakhstan
Title: “Bauryna Salu”
Director: Askhat Kuchencherekov
Language: Kazakh
Synopsis: Following an old nomadic tradition ‘bauryna salu’, a boy Yersultan, was given after his birth to be raised by his grandmother. When he turns twelve, his grandmother dies and he has to move back with his family which he barely knows.
Kenya
Title: “Nawi”
Director: Vallentine Chelluget, Apuu Mourine, Kevin Schmutzler and Toby Schmutzler
Language: Swahili, English
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of contemporary Kenya, the story follows a young woman navigating the complexities of her traditional upbringing and modern aspirations. As she grapples with familial expectations and her own desires, Nawi embarks on a journey of self-discovery, ultimately seeking to reconcile her past with her future.
Kyrgyzstan
Title: “Heaven is Beneath Mother’s Feet”
Director: Ruslan Akun
Language: Kyrgyz
Synopsis: The story of 35-year-old Adil, a special person whose mental development remained at the level of an 8-year-old child. Adil lives in a small village with his 75-year-old mother, Raikhan Apa, who always tells Adil that the Almighty loves him in a special way, and therefore he will go straight to Heaven. But Adil doesn’t want to go to Paradise without his mother.
Latvia
Title: “Flow”
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Language: No Dialogue
Synopsis: Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
Lebanon
Title: “Arzé”
Director: Mira Shaib
Language: Arabic
Synopsis: Arzé, a single mother, takes her teenage son on a journey across sectarian Beirut in search of their stolen scooter, their only source of livelihood.
Lithuania
Title: “Drowning Dry”
Director: Laurynas Barei?a
Language: Lithuanian
Synopsis: To celebrate Lukas’ victory at the martial arts tournament and Tomas’ birthday party, their wives Juste and Ernesta organize a weekend at the summer house with a families. It was suppose to be a quiet weekend at countryside.
Malaysia
Title: “Abang Adik”
Director: Jin Ong
Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay
Synopsis: Abang and Adik are undocumented orphans in Malaysia. While the older brother who is deaf has resigned himself to a life of poverty, his younger sibling burns with indignation. A brutal accident upsets their relationship’s fragile balance.
Malta
Title: “Castillo”
Director: Abigail Mallia
Language: Maltese
Synopsis: Amanda reunites with her mother after her father’s death. Her mother admits killing two men in revenge for her sister K.Penza’s 1986 assassination. Amanda uncovers her family’s dark history involving these past events.
Mexico
Title: “Sujo”
Director: Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: When a cartel gunman is killed, he leaves behind Sujo, his 4-year-old son. The shadow of violence surrounds Sujo during each stage of his life. As he grows into a man, Sujo finds that fulfilling his father’s destiny may be inescapable.
Mongolia
Title: “If Only I Could Hibernate”
Director: Zoljargal Purevdash
Language: Mongolian
Synopsis: A poor but prideful teenage boy Ulzii determines to win a Physics competition for a scholarship, but his illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside and leaves him with his siblings in the middle of the winter.
Montenegro
Title: “Supermarket”
Director: Nemanja Be?anovi?
Language: Serbo-Croatian
Synopsis: What’s like to live in a supermarket by yourself…and find out you are not alone?
Morocco
Title: “Everybody Loves Touda”
Director: Nabil Ayouch
Language: Arabic
Synopsis: Touda is a Sheikha, a traditional Moroccan singer. Performing in the bars of her provincial town under the gaze of men, she plans to leave for the lights of Casablanca, to gain recognition and ensure a better future for her son.
Nepal
Title: “Shambhala”
Director: Min Bahadur Bham
Language: Tibetan, Nepali
Synopsis: In a Himalayan polyandrous village, pregnant PEMA faces scrutiny as her husband vanishes. With her monk brother-in-law, her de facto spouse, she seeks him in the wild, unraveling her own self-discovery along the journey
Netherlands
Title: “Memory Lane”
Director: Jelle de Jonge
Language: Dutch
Synopsis: A bitter-aged man reluctantly drives to Spain to pay a last visit to a dying friend, along with his wife who’s suffering from dementia. But as their journey unfolds, he slowly starts to soften up and rediscovers the meaning of love.
Nigeria
Title: “Mai Martaba”
Director: Prince Aboki
Language: Hausa
Synopsis: Rival forces clash for the throne of the ancient kingdom of Jallaba.
Norway
Title: “Armand”
Director: Halfdan Ullmann T?ndel
Language: Norwegian
Synopsis: Armand, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing boundaries against his best friend at elementary school.
Pakistan
Title: “The Glassworker”
Director: Usman Riaz
Language: Urdu, English
Synopsis: The life of a young glassblower in training and his relationships over the years, as his land goes through war and strife.
Palestine
Title: “From Ground Zero”
Director: Various
Language: Arabic
Synopsis: From Ground Zero is a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, the project was born to give a voice to 22 Gazan filmmakers to tell the untold stories of the current war on film.
Panama
Title: “Wake Up Mom”
Director: Arianne Benedetti
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Ali decides to move to a small town in the mountains with her little daughter Sofía after her devastating separation from her husband. Weeks later, she will be immersed in the mysterious atmosphere of the place and then have an accident and realize that her daughter has disappeared.
Paraguay
Title: “The Last”
Director: Sebastián Pe?a Escobar
Language: Spanish, Guarani
Synopsis: The vast Gran Chaco natural region in Paraguay is under serious threat from large-scale deforestation and wildfires. Filmmaker Sebastian Pe?a Escobar travels with the German entomologist Ulf Drechsel and the Paraguayan ornithologist Jota Escobar to this vulnerable, flammable area, which looks like an apocalyptic landscape with red dirt roads and dry thorny trees.
Peru
Title: “Yana-Wara”
Director: óscar Catacora and Tito Catacora
Language: Aymara
Synopsis: The communal justice system accuses Don Evaristo, 80 years old, for the murder of his granddaughter Yana-Wara, 13 years old. During the hearing, everyone learns the tragic story of this young girl, who, because of gender violence, begins to have terrifying visions after being touched by the evil spirits that inhabit the forbidden places of the Ande.
Philippines
Title: “And So It Begins”
Director: Ramona S. Diaz
Language: Filipino, English
Synopsis: Amid Filipino elections, a grassroots movement emerges to protect truth and democracy from growing threats. People unite in joyful acts of resistance, kindling hope while autocracy expands.
Poland
Title: “Under the Volcano”
Director: Damian Kocur
Language: Ukrainian, Spanish, English, Russian, German, Wolof
Synopsis: A portrayal of the emotional state of the young Ukrainian family, struck by the outbreak of war on the last day of their vacation in Tenerife. Their return to Kiev turns out to be impossible.
Portugal
Title: “Grand Tour”
Director: Miguel Gomes
Language: Portuguese
Synopsis: Edward, civil servant, flees fiancee Molly on their wedding day in Rangoon, 1917. His travels replace panic with melancholy. Molly, set on marriage, amused by his escape, trails him across Asia.
Romania
Title: “Three Kilometres to the End of the World”
Director: Emanuel Parvu
Language: Romanian
Synopsis: Set in a conservative Danube Delta community, a gay teenager’s journey of self-discovery clashes with the traditional values upheld by his parents and neighbors.
Senegal
Title: “Dahomey”
Director: Mati Diop
Language: French
Synopsis: The journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation’s demands.
Serbia
Title: “Russian Consul”
Director: Miroslav Leki?
Language: Serbian
Synopsis: Year 1973, turmoil between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians in Autonomous province of Kosovo. A story that describes the beginning of the crisis in Kosovo.
Singapore
Title: “La Luna”
Director: M. Raihan Halim
Language: Malay
Synopsis: The story revolves around a small village, Kampong Bras Basah, and the unexpected opening of a women’s lingerie store, La Luna.
Slovakia
Title: “The Hungarian Dressmaker”
Director: Iveta Grófová
Language: Slovak, German, Hungarian
Synopsis: Marika, a Hungarian widow dressmaker shelters a Jewish boy in her home on the Slovak-Hungarian border during the turbulent years of WW2 and the Wartime Slovak State.
Slovenia
Title: “Family Therapy”
Director: Sonja Prosenc
Language: Slovenian, English, French
Synopsis: Young stranger disrupts seemingly perfect family’s life, exposing their internal issues, fears, and dysfunctional relationships as external chaos invades their once idyllic existence.
South Africa
Title: “Old Righteous Blues”
Director: Muneera Sallies
Language: Afrikaans
Synopsis: A young man is forced to confront his limitations, face the ghosts of the past in order to unite a fractured community and realise his dream of leading his town’s Christmas Choir Band to former glory.
South Korea
Title: “12.12: The Day”
Director: Kim Sung-su
Language: Korean
Synopsis: Following the assassination of President Park in 1979, various military factions wrestle for control during a violent coup in this tense South Korean period action drama.
Spain
Title: “Saturn Return”
Director: Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Late 1990s. Art and culture are in full swing in Granada. Against that background, an indie band is about to change the music scene in Spain. Just before creating their new album, the band is going through its worst possible moment.
Sweden
Title: “The Last Journey”
Director: Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
Language: Swedish, French
Synopsis: Renowned Swedish TV-duo Filip and Fredrik embark on a trip to France, aiming to rekindle the zest for life of Filip’s father.
Switzerland
Title: “Reinas”
Director: Klaudia Reynicke
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Two teenage sisters are about to leave their country forever when they unexpectedly reconnect with an absent father. This relationship will both amplify and ease their pain of change.
Taiwan
Title: “Old Fox”
Director: Hsiao Ya-chuan
Language: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hokkien, Japanese
Synopsis: This family drama is about an 11-year-old boy who befriends his landlord, nicknamed Old Fox, and learns from him how to survive in a rapidly changing world as well as things his poor father would never be able to teach him.
Tajikistan
Title: “Melody”
Director: Behrouz Sebt Rasoul
Language: Persian
Synopsis: Melody teaches music at a children cancer center for thirty children which are going to have a party at the end of autumn. Melody is to compose a piece using the sounds of thirty different birds.
Thailand
Title: “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”
Director: Pat Boonnitipat
Language: Thai, Teochew Min
Synopsis: A man quits work to care for his dying grandmother, motivated by her fortune. He schemes to win her favor before she passes.
Tunisia
Title: “Take My Breath”
Director: Nada Mezni Hafaiedh
Language: Arabic
Synopsis: Shams must live in the shadows. At 23, life is steeped in secrecy and an unimaginable pain. Stripped of the right to exist, Shams is shunned by true love and rejected by society’s rigid norms and expectations.
Turkey
Title: “Life”
Director: Zeki Demirkubuz
Language: Turkish
Synopsis: A fiancée lost on the streets of Istanbul, a man who sets out to find the truth. Escape or love? The fate of the duo is written in Istanbul.
Ukraine
Title: “La Palisiada”
Director: Philip Sotnychenko
Language: Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Russian
Synopsis: Ukraine, 1996. 5 months before the moratorium on the death penalty, two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, investigate a murder of their colleague.
United Kingdom
Title: “Santosh”
Director: Sandhya Suri
Language: Hindi
Synopsis: Newly widowed Santosh inherits her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a girl’s body is found, she’s pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Venezuela
Title: “Children of Las Brisas”
Director: Marianela Maldonado
Language: Spanish
Synopsis: Set in the sprawling suburbs of Valencia, The Children Of Las Brisas is a poetic and observational documentary capturing the struggle and transformation of a group of young musicians striving for a better life through classical music.
Vietnam
Title: “Peach Blossom, Pho and Piano”
Director: Phi Ti?n S?n
Language: Vietnemese
Synopsis: In 1946 Hanoi battle, a Hanoian fighter hides at pho vendors’ homes to retrieve arms from French soldiers, offering pho as a bargain for chives.
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