Just as the Oscar Best Picture race remains wide open as 2024 comes to an end, there’s a similar sense of excitement mounting about the breadt
Just as the Oscar Best Picture race remains wide open as 2024 comes to an end, there’s a similar sense of excitement mounting about the breadth and range of films competing for Best International Feature Film. The submissions process found 85 of the 89 films presented eligible, but the real work starts now, in terms of whittling those down first to a shortlist of 15 and then to the final five.
Perhaps more so than in recent years, the diversity is eye-popping, ranging from action thrillers and personal dramas to intimate documentaries. The cross-section is well represented at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International showcase, which kicks off today beginning at 9 a.m. PT.
As ever, this year’s lineup offers a snapshot of film festival highlights, taking us on a whistle-stop tour of the huge five — Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto — with titles that made an impact at events in Warsaw, Thessaloniki, Taipei, Locarno, Málaga, Haugesund and Karlovy Vary. If this sounds too much like a journey into unchartered territory, our writers are here to assist you find your bearings, quizzing the films’ stars, directors, producers and screenwriters to find the stories behind the scenes.
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Representing Brazil, we have Walter Salles’ Venice hit I’m Still Here, a politically charged look back at life in Rio during the repressive ’70s. Park City, meanwhile, is still reeling after a visit from the team behind Ireland’s entry Kneecap, a roughhouse biopic of the titular rap trio. From Turkey comes Life, in which a woman escapes from an arranged marriage, and from Greece we have Murderess, a period drama about a turn-of-the-century midwife. Taiwan brings us Old Fox, a 1990-set coming-of-age story in which a needy youthful boy befriends the ruthless landlord who controls his entire neighborhood.
Switzerland offers Queens, a family drama set during the political turmoil of early-’90s Peru. From the same timeframe comes Spanish entry Saturn Return, which tells the true story of local indie-rock outfit Los Planetas. From Tunisia comes Take My Breath, in which a youthful seamstress has their life overturned when their intersex identity is exposed. Sweden has opted for non-fiction this year, and The Last Journey finds a retired schoolteacher taking an impromptu road trip to rediscover his joie de vivre.
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From Romania there’s Three Kilometres to the End of the World, which deals with the aftermath of a homophobic attack in a conservative Danube Delta community. Under the Volcano, from Poland, deals with consequences of a different kind, focusing on a Ukrainian family stranded in Tenerife at the start of the recent Russian invasion. On a similar theme comes the Czech Republic’s offering Waves, a drama about events in Prague leading up to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. And for something completely different, from Hong Kong comes Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, a martial-arts spectacular that took Cannes by storm at its wild midnight screening.
All these films have one thing in common: the ability to make the outside world feel that little bit closer.
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Stay with Deadline all day for coverage of all the panels, both on Deadline.com and on our social channels via #DeadlineContenders. Be sure to check back Monday when we launch the event’s streaming site featuring the full panel conversations.
Here’s today’s lineup to follow along:
Contenders Film: Documentary
9 a.m. PT – Livestream begins
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
I’m Still Here
Walter Salles (Director)
Selton Mello (Actor)
Fernanda Torres (Actor)
Kneecap
Rich Peppiatt (Writer/Director)
FAMart ASSOCIATION
Three Kilometres to the End of the World
Emanuel Pârvu (Co-Writer/Director)
Miruna Berescu (Co-Writer/Producer)
815 PICTURES
Old Fox
Hsiao Ya-Chuan (Writer/Director)
DAWSON FILMS
Waves
Jiří Mádl (Writer/Director)
Vojtĕch Vodochodský (Actor)
Tatiana Pauhofová (Actor)
OUTSIDER PICTURES
Queens
Klaudia Reynicke (Writer/Director)
Gonzalo Molina (Actor)
Luana Vega (Actor)
TANWEER PRODUCTIONS
Murderess
Eva Nathena (Director/Costume Designer/Art Director)
Dionyssis Samiotis (Producer)
MAVI FILM
Life
Zeki Demirkubuz (Writer/Director)
Burak Dakak (Actor)
LA TERRAZA FILMS
Saturn Return
Isaki Lacuesta (Writer/Director)
Cristóbal García (Producer)
LIZART FILM
Under the Volcano
Damian Kocur (Co-Writer/Director)
Mikołaj Lizut (Producer)
Agnieszka Jastrzębska (Producer)
LEYTH PRODUCTION & HAMZEH MYSTIQUE FILMS
Take My Breath
Nada Mezni Hafaiedh (Writer/Director)
Ziad Hamzeh (Co-Producer)
NEXIKO
The Last Journey
Filip Hammar (Co-Writer/Co-Director/Subject)
Fredrik Wikingsson (Co-Writer/Co-Director/Subject)
Lars Beckung (Producer)
WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
Soi Cheang (Director)
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