The race for Best International Feature at the Oscars has officially kicked off as countries around the globe begin to select their top film exports to represent them on Hollywood’s biggest stage. This is also the first year where new rules are in place that guarantee certain festival winners automatically entry, creating the opportunity for multiple films from a country to be represented.
Here’s a look at what’s in contention so far.
Austria: Rose
Director: Markus Schleinzer
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun and Marisa Growaldt
Synopsis: Set in the early 17th century following the Thirty Years’ War, Rose follows a battle-weary soldier (Hüller) who arrives in a remote, deeply conservative Protestant village in Germany. The film had its world premiere at Berlinale and Hüller’s performance earned the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance.
Belgium: Coward
Director: Lukas Dhont
Cast: Emmanuel Macchia, Valentin Campagne
Synopsis: During the First World War, the soldiers try to keep up their morale behind the trenches. Stirred by wartime rhetoric, each of them seeks their own path. Coward premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where stars Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne shared the Best Actor award, before screening as a Special Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Cambodia: Becoming Human (Chiet Chea Manusa)
Director: Polen Ly
Cast: Savorn Serak, Piseth Chhun
Synopsis: Thida, the spirit guardian of an old cinema facing demolition, must confront her existence as a ghost and decide whether to be reborn. When she meets Hai, a living man, they form a deep bond that forces Thida to confront her spiritual destiny.
Canada: Nina Roza
Director: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Cast: Galin Stoev, Chiara Caselli, Christian Bégin, Ekaterina Stanina, Sofia Stanina
Synopsis: Mihail, a Bulgarian immigrant living in Canada, is sent back to his home country for the first time in nearly 30 years to investigate the paintings of Nina, an 8-year-old Bulgarian artistic prodigy whose work has gone viral online. The film premiered in competition at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, where Dulude-De Celles won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.
Chile: The Meltdown (El deshielo)
Director: Manuela Martelli
Cast: Maya O’Rourke, Saskia Rosendahl, Maia Rae Domagala
Synopsis: Set in Chile in 1992, 9-year-old Inés stays with her grandparents at their remote hotel near an Andean ski resort. She befriends Hanna, a 15-year-old German skier, but when Hanna suddenly disappears, the search for her exposes hidden truths. The film had its world premiered at the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes last May.
Colombia: Rains Over Babel (Llueve sobre Babel)
Director: Gala del Sol
Cast: Saray Rebolledo, Felipe Aguilar Rodríguez, John Alex Castillo, Sofía Buenaventura, William Hurtado, Celina Biurrun, Johan Zapata, José Mojica
Synopsis: The nightclub Babel functions as a purgatory where the living and the dead converge. Lost souls confront La Flaca, a personification of Death, as they seek redemption and second chances. The film premiered at Sundance and Variety has hailed it as, “a dazzling, daring provocation.”
Czech Republic: If Pigeons Turned to Gold (Kdyby se holubi proměnili ve zlato)
Director: Pepa Lubojacki
Cast: Pepa Lubojacki, David Richter, Marco Arnone, David Lubojacki
Synopsis: A deeply personal documentary filmed over five years, the film follows Lubojacki’s brother and two cousins as they struggle with addiction and homelessness. Combining diary footage, stylized memories, photographs enhanced with AI, and graphic interventions, the film explores family trauma and the difficult question of whether to rescue someone or let them go.
Dominican Republic: Melodrama
Director: Andrés Farías
Cast: Mercedes Morales, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Sarah Jorge León, Cyndie Lundy, Adriana Zayas
Synopsis: After becoming widowed, Sonia must sell the home she has always known and move into a smaller apartment. She meets Aimé, a Haitian construction worker, and the two begin an unexpected romance.
Estonia: Our Erika (Meie Erika)
Director: German Golub
Cast: Karolin Jürise, Erki Laur, Rodion Kuzmin, Viktor Lanberg
Synopsis: This biographical sports drama follows Estonian track cyclist Erika Salumäe from a difficult childhood and time in an orphanage through her rise to Olympic glory.
Germany: Everytime
Director: Sandra Wollner
Cast: Birgit Minichmayr, Lotte Shirin Keiling, Tristán López, Carla Hüttermann
Synopsis: A tragedy brings a mother, her daughter, and a teenage boy together. As they confront grief, guilt, and forgiveness, they travel to Tenerife for the family vacation that never took place.
Japan: All of a Sudden (急に具合が悪くなる)
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyōzō Nagatsuka, Kodai Kurosaki
Synopsis: Set in Paris, the film follows Marie-Lou, the director of a care facility, who meets Mari, a Japanese theater director living with stage IV cancer. Their chance encounter develops into an intense bond as Mari’s illness progresses. It premiered at Cannes in 2026, where Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the Best Actress award.
Kosovo: Dua
Director: Blerta Basholli
Cast: Pinea Matoshi, Vlera Bilalli, Kaona Matoshi, Yllka Gashi, Kushtrim Hoxha
Synopsis: The film follows 13-year-old Dua as she comes of age amid rising ethnic tensions in postwar Kosovo.
Latvia: Ulya (Uļa)
Director: Viesturs Kairišs
Cast: Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Chulpan Khamatova, Aleksas Kazanavičius, Arturs Krūzkops, Kaspars Dumburs
Synopsis: Inspired by the life of legendary Latvian basketball player Ulyana Semjonova, the film follows a remarkably tall young woman raised in a strict religious settlement who overcomes cultural boundaries to become a dominant force in international basketball.
Lithuania: How to Divorce During the War (Skyrybos karo metu)
Director: Andrius Blaževičius
Cast: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė
Synopsis: A married couple attempts to divorce just before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Their personal crisis unfolds against the growing geopolitical emergency, creating a darkly comic drama about relationships, uncertainty, and life on the brink of war. The film premiered at Sundance in 2026 and won the Directing Award for World Cinema Dramatic.
Mexico: On the Road (En el camino)
Director: David Pablos
Cast: Víctor Prieto, Osvaldo Sánchez
Synopsis: Two men meet on the dangerous freight routes of Mexico and fall into an unexpected, intimate relationship.
Slovakia: Flood (Potopa)
Director: Martin Gonda
Cast: Sára Chripáková, Jozef Pantlikáš, Katarína Babejová, Vladimíra Štefániková, Michal Soltész
Synopsis: In 1980, a Rusyn village in eastern Slovakia is destroyed to make way for a dam. The relationship between a widowed farmer and his 15-year-old daughter grows increasingly strained as she dreams of becoming a pilot.
South Korea: Possible Love (가능한 사랑)
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, Cho Yeo-jeong
Synopsis: Two married couples from very different social backgrounds become intertwined when a documentary filmmaker decides to make a film about a laid-off factory worker and his wife. As the filmmaking process unfolds, hidden desires, resentments, economic anxieties, and questions about documentary ethics come to the surface.
Switzerland: Who Is Still Alive (Qui vit encore)
Director: Nicolas Wadimoff
Synopsis: A documentary centered on nine Gazan refugees who escaped the war. Through their stories of life before the conflict, loss, displacement, and survival.
Taiwan: A Foggy Tale (大濛)
Director: Chen Yu-hsun
Cast: Caitlin Fang, 9m88, Will Or
Synopsis: The film follows a young girl from Chiayi who travels north to retrieve the remains of her brother, who was executed by the Kuomintang government. Along the way, she develops a friendship with a local soldier and rickshaw driver.
Thailand: 9 Temples to Heaven (9 วัด สู่สวรรค์)
Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Synopsis: After a fortune-teller predicts that his elderly mother may soon die, Sakol takes his mother and extended family on a one-day pilgrimage to nine temples in an attempt to ward off the curse.
Turkey: Like a Limbless Tree (Kesilmiş Bir Ağaç Gibi)
Director: Tunç Davut
Cast: Ali İpin, Feyyaz Duman, Selen Kurtaran, Dilan Düzgüner, Ahmed El Ali
Synopsis: Retired engineer Refik offers his Syrian caretaker Nesrin money to flee to Europe with her children, but she disappears after leaving the children in his care.
