The Nine Finalists for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film have been picked

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has unveiled its list of the nine films that are eligible for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. And sorry to say that the Philippine's entry entitled "Transit" and two other entries which has some Filipino theme (Singapore's entry is entitled "Iloilo" and UK's entry is entitled "Metro Manila") did not make it to the final nine as well. [hit the jump to continue]

The films include Wong Kar-wai’s Hong Kong entry "The Grandmaster", the Belgian film "The Broken Circle Breakdown", and Denmark’s "The Hunt" starring Mads Mikkelsen. We already knew that Palme d’Or winner "Blue Is the Warmest Color" would be deemed ineligible given that it wasn’t released in France until after the theatrical run deadline, but one of the most glaring omissions is "A Separation" director Asghar Farhadi’s new film "The Past".  There was some controversy surrounding the pic given that it’s officially Iran’s entry even though the film’s primary spoken language is French.

Also absent is Saudi Arabia’s well-received "Wadjda".  That film marked the country’s very first entry in the Oscar race, directed by a woman (Haifaa Al-Mansour) no less.  Alas, trying to make sense of the Best Foreign Language category year after year, given the Academy’s strict and strange rules, is a fruitless endeavor.

Here are the nine films that are eligible to compete for a Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination:

The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker – Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Missing Picture – Cambodia
The Hunt – Denmark
Two Lives – Germany
The Grandmaster – Hong Kong
The Notebook – Hungary
The Great Beauty – Italy
Omar – Palestine

The Academy Awards, commonly known as The Oscars will be on March 2, 2014 at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres set to host the show for the second time.