South Korea and Spain announced that the films Escape from Mogadishu and The Good Boss will represent their respective countries at the 94th Oscars, in the Best International Feature Film category.
The 94th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Mads Mikkelsen-starring Danish film Another Round won the award in the category in 2021.
The South Korean film, Escape from Mogadishu, is directed by Seung-wan Ryoo, and features actors Kim Yoon-seok, In-Sung Jo, Joon-ho Huh, and others. The story revolves around families of South and North Korean embassies in a war-torn Somalia in 1991, whose only goal is to escape from Mogadishu. Based on a true story, the film that released in July 2021 tasted success at the domestic box office. The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) selected the title from a shortlist of six, according to Screen Rant.
Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite became the first South Korean film to win at the Oscars in 2020, bagging both the Best Picture as well as Best International Feature Film awards.
The International Feature Film category was renamed so from Foreign Language category after debates around the usage of the term ‘foreign’, which seemed to contradict the goal of inclusivity. Parasite was the first film to win in the renamed category.
The Spanish film, The Good Boss, was also submitted on Tuesday for Oscar consideration. The Javier Bardem-starrer is directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa. It premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2021.
“Awaiting a visit by a committee that could give his company an award for excellence, the owner of an industrial scales manufacturing business tries to resolve any problems from his workers in enough time,” reads IMDb‘s synopsis of the film.
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Alejandro Amenabar’s 2004 film, The Sea Inside, was the last Spanish film to win in the category, while Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory (2019) was the last to receive a nomination.
Apart from the above, other countries that have announced their picks for the Oscars include Hungary (Post Mortem), Germany (I’m Your Man), Somalia (The Gravedigger’s Wife), Canada (Drunken Birds), Switzerland (Olga), Kyrgyzstan (Shambala), Ireland (Shelter), Cambodia (White Building), and Poland (Leave No Traces), according to Variety.
The deadline for submissions to the Academy is November 1, 2021. A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to be announced on December 21, with the final five nominees revealed on February 8, 2022.