Oscars 2026 Exclusive: Explore the Global Submissions for International Feature Film!

Directed by Florenc Papas, Luna Park premiered at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2024. Set in Albania’s post-communist landscape, a lonely mother, Mira, and her troubled teenage son, Toni, struggle through an outbreak of civil violence that tears their nation apart. A film about transition – not only between different societies and political regimes, but also between human emotions – it’s inspired by the filmmaker’s childhood memories of a turbulent era. This is Papas’ second time repping Albania which has never advanced to the shortlist.

Dolores Fonzi’s San Sebastian Competition entry is based on the book Somos Belén by Ana Correa. Pulling from true events, the film follows a young woman who is admitted to a hospital with severe abdominal pain, unaware she is pregnant. She wakes up handcuffed to a gurney and surrounded by police, accused of having self-induced an abortion. After two years in detention, she is sentenced to eight years in prison for aggravated homicide. A female lawyer from Tucumán fights for her freedom with the support of thousands of women and organizations, who unite to change the course of history. Argentina has won twice in this category, and was last nominated at the 95th Academy Awards.

Tamara Stepanyan embarks on a nostalgic journey into Armenian cinema through her life growing up as the child of Vigen Stepanyan, one of Armenia’s most respected actors and theater directors, and a virtuoso cellist. The documentary world premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum sidebar in 2025. Armenia has submitted regularly since 2001 and made it onto the shortlist in 2023 with Amerikatsi. Cinephil handles world sales.

Gabrielle Brady’s Mongolia-set hybrid work The Wolves Always Come at Night also will run for Oscar consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category. The Mongolian-language film blends documentary and fiction to tell the dramatic and heartrending story of Mongolian herders Davaasuren Dagvasuren and Otgonzaya Dashzeveg’s difficult decision to leave their homelands after the arrival of a powerful and destructive sandstorm. The stars also co-wrote the film with Brady. The pic has its world premiere in TIFF’s Platform Prize competition in 2024 and also played London, Zurich and other festivals.

Bernhard Wenger’s feature directorial debut stars Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet On The Western Front) whose job at a rent-a-friend agency impinges on his ability to forge authentic relationships. The satire premiered in Venice Critics’ Week in 2024. Austria has been nominated four times, with Michael Haneke’s Amour and Stefan Ruzowitzky’s The Counterfeiters going on to win the Oscar. Oscilloscope has U.S. rights while mk2 Films handles international sales.

Director Zaur Gasimli pays tribute to 19th century Azerbaijani industrial magnate and philanthropist Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, played by Parviz Mamedrzaev. One of Abzerbaijan’s most ambitious film productions to date, the movie was made to coincide with the centenary of Taghiyev’s death in 1924. A second instalment, Taghiyev: The Tsar, is in the works. Azerbaijan began submitting in 2007 but has never made it onto the shortlist.

Belgium has selected Young Mothers, directed by fraternal twins Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, as its Best International Feature Film entry for the 98^th Academy Awards. The drama feature marks the duo’s 13th film, and if follows five women living in a temporary shelter for underage mothers. Music Box holds North American rights to the film, with Goodfellas handling international sales.

RELATED: ‘Young Mothers’ Review: An Expert And Soulful Exploration Of Teenage Motherhood From Belgium’s Dardenne Brothers – Cannes Film Festival

The fourth-ever submission from Bhutan — which scored a nomination at the 94th Oscars and made the international shortlist two years later — Dechen Roder’s I, The Song debuted at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year and won the Best Director prize. Described as a tale of Buddhist karma, doppelgangers and melancholic Dzongkha songs, the film centers on Nima, a schoolteacher who faces trouble when an explicit intimate video surfaces online, featuring a woman who looks exactly like her. Nima embarks on a quest to find her lookalike, Meto, who has disappeared without a trace. The locals, struck by Nima’s uncanny resemblance to Meto, begin to believe she is Meto’s long-lost ghost. The village elders suggest singing Aum Tshomo’s sacred song to unravel the mystery.

Jasmila Žbanić’s Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny is the latest from the Oscar-nominated director of Quo Vadis, Aida? A documentary, the film follows the life of Bosnian engineer and Holocaust survivor Emerik Blum, who thrived during post-war years in Yugoslavia’s power sector, where he implemented a massive corporate energy and engineering conglomerate in a socialist state during the Cold War. Archival footage and modern testimonials paint a portrait of Blum as a humane leader and shrewd diplomat whose unconventional vision blended elements of socialism and capitalism. The doc screened in Doc Fortnight at MoMA’s Festival of International Nonfiction Film and Media earlier this year and also at the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York. Icarus Films picked up North American distribution in July.

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for Wagner Moura along with Best Director. The synopsis: It’s 1977 Brazil, and Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks. Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho and Hermila Guedes also star. Neon has North American rights, and Mubi has picked up the film for the UK, Ireland, India, and Latin America, excluding Brazil.

RELATED: ‘The Secret Agent’ Review: Wagner Moura Effectively Plays Man Of Mystery In Brazilian Thriller – Cannes Film Festival

Milko Lazarov’s drama stars big screen debutant Veseka Valcheva as the titular Tarika. Born with a rare bone condition, which gives her “butterfly wings”, Tarika has been the butt of the local community’s superstition forever. Tarika’s father (Zahari Baharov) raises his daughter in a remote shack in a bid to protect her, but when a mysterious disease hits local cattle the blame falls on the young girl. Lazarov previously represented Bulgaria in 2019 with Àga. Bulgaria has made the shortlist only once, for 2009’s The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner. Films Boutique handles world sales.

Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea tap into Cambodia’s bloody political past under the Khmer Rouge for this psychological horror thriller. Thorn Thanet plays a manga artist who travels to her ancestral home in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, following the death of her mother. She rents an apartment in a dilapidated Khmer Rouge-era housing complex, where she starts suffering from nightmares and visions as she attempts to reconnect with her roots. Submitting since 1994, Cambodia has been nominated once with Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture in 2013, and made it onto the shortlist with Davy Chou’s Return to Soul in 2022. Reel Suspects handles world sales.