It may be the end of August, but Oscar season is almost in full bloom. Not only are the major festivals about to debut highly anticipated new contenders, but the International Feature Film category is locking down its submissions. In fact, some nations are picking their players significantly earlier than expected. Just today, Belgium selected Lukas Dhont’s “Coward” and South Korea chose Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love.”
READ MORE: “Coward” Review: Lukas Dhont Chronicles Love And Pain On The Frontlines Of The Great War [Cannes]
“Coward,” which saw stars Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne win Best Actor at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, was not a surprise. MUBI is releasing the WWI queer drama on December 25. On the flip side, Chang-dong’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 drama “Burning” beat out Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” which also debuted at Cannes and has been a significant hit in Korea, taking in $34 million. “Possible Love” will debut at the upcoming 2026 Venice Film Festival and is slated for a slew of other major festivals in the months ahead. Netflix will distribute in the U.S. with a limited theatrical release on Oct. 23, followed by a streaming drop on November 6.
This year, the Academy announced that prize winners of a select number of festivals would automatically qualify for consideration for the International Feature Film Oscar. That choice is already paying dividends. Germany now has three submissions, including the Deutsch-financed and produced İlker Çatak’s “Yellow Letters,” which won the Golden Bear at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, and another German-financed film, Visar Morina’s “Shame and Money,” which took the International Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in January (although several other nations could have submitted the latter). The third film is their official selection, Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime” which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in May. The drama will be released by 1-2 Special in the U.S. in early 2027.
Additional early International Film selections include Austria picking “Rose,” which saw star Sandra Huller winning the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at Berlin, and the Czech Republic selecting “If Pigeons Turned To Gold,” which won the Documentary prize at Berlin. Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” automatically qualified after winning the Palm d’Or at Cannes.
Still to be determined are the fates of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” (potentially Japan or France), the Javis’ “La bola negra” (likely Spain, but Pedro Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas” or Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved” could spoil), Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” (potentially Latvia or France or snubbed), and Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland” (expected to be Poland’s pick).
The rest of this year’s submissions should trickle over the next month as the deadline for 2027 consideration is Wednesday, September 30. Last year, there were 92 submissions, up from 89 the year prior.
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