Oscars 2027 Buzz: Denmark, Italy, Spain Lead International Film Submissions!

A State Film by Roland Sejko is Albania’s submission for the 2027 Academy Awards.

The film captures 40 years of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime through the very images the regime produced to glorify itself. The film had its world premiere in the Notti Veneziane section of Giornate degli Autori during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and was produced by Cinecittà.

Born and raised in Albania, Sejko has worked with Istituto Luce since 1995, where he currently serves as editorial director of the Luce Historical Archive. He is the writer and director of several documentary films, many of which explore the creative use of archival footage.

Algeria has selected Yanis Koussim’s debut feature Roqia as its Oscar submission. The horror film debuted in the Critics’ Week competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The film’s synopsis reads: In 1993, after a car crash leaves Ahmed amnesiac, he returns to his village, where nothing feels familiar—not his wife, not his children. His youngest, frightened by Ahmed’s bandaged face, fears him deeply. Each night, strange visitors whisper litanies in an unknown tongue. Who are they? And why does his so-called friend, the neighbor, make him feel so uneasy?

In the present, an aging Raqi battles Alzheimer’s. As possessed people speak in foreign tongues and violence rises, Ahmed fears regaining memory, while the disciple fears his master’s decline may unleash an ancient evil.

Koussim directs from a screenplay he wrote. The cast includes Ali Namous, Akram Djeghim, Mostefa Djadjam, Hanaa Mansour, and Lydia Hanni. Farès Ladjimi (Supernova Films) produced the film, which is a France, Algeria, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia co-production.

The Armenian Film Academy has selected Tamara Stepanyan’s feature film In the Land of Arto as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. The film follows Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Camille Cottin, and Denis Lavant. The story follows Celine, who seeks to legalize her husband Arto’s death in Armenia, uncovering his lies about war service and desertion. Her quest through war-scarred lives reveals a deeper truth: how to properly lay a ghost to rest.

Australia has submitted First Light for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. Written and directed by James J. Robinson, the film debuted at the Melbourne Film Festival, where it won the Blackmagic Design Best Australian Director Award. The title is Australia’s first-ever Tagalog-language Oscar submission and the first Filipino-Australian co-production. The film follows an elderly nun who witnesses a young construction worker’s fatal accident, compelling her to question the ethical principles of the institution she has devoted her life to.

Markus Schleinzer’s black-and-white period drama Rose won star Sandra Hüller the Silver Bear leading performance prize after its world premiere at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival. Set in 17th century Germany, she plays a mysterious soldier who appears in a secluded Protestant village amidst the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War and declares himself to be the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead, eventually gaining the villagers’ acceptance — even as it all is built on lies. Mubi has North American rights to the pic, which Deadline’s critic Damon Wise called “a remarkable piece of work.” Hüller was previously Oscar-nominated for Best Actress for 2014’s Anatomy of a Fall. Read Deadline’s story here and watch the trailer below:

Lukas Dhont’s latest feature Coward, which world premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, gets Belgium’s submission spot after his previous film, 2022’s Close, was nominated in the category. The new pic is set during World War I and follows Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia), a soldier newly arrived at the front who is eager to prove himself. Behind the lines, he meets Francis (Valentin Campagne), who decides to lift the spirits of his comrades by putting together a theater show. While the violence continues, both try to find ways to escape the brutality of war, even if only for a moment. Mubi acquired North American rights to the pic and will release it in theaters December 25. Read Deadline’s story here, and watch the trailer below:

Álvaro Olmos Torrico’s The Condor Daughter (La hija cóndor) made its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and hit theaters in September 2026 in limited release. It follows Clara (Marisol Vallejo Montañor), a teenager growing up in a small indigenous community high in the Andes. Her adoptive mother Ana (María Magdalena Sanizo), a midwife, has taught her the ancient songs used to guide women through childbirth, melodies passed down for generations, but Clara dreams of becoming a folk music star in the big city. The pic won Best Film at Biarritz Latin American Film Festival, and Montañor took Best Actress at the Malaga and Guadalajara fests. Bolivia has been submitting films for Oscar consideration since the mid-1990s but has yet to earn a nomination in the international/foreign-language category. Watch the trailer here:

Feito Pipa, which won a pair of awards after its world premiere at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival (the Crystal Bear for Best Film, awarded by the Youth Jury, and a Grand Prix award in the Generation Kplus sidebar), was selected by the Brazilian Academy of Cinema. Allan Deberton directed the pic, which centers on Gugu (Yuri Gomes), a young queer teen passionate about soccer and dance who lives with his open-minded grandmother, Dilma (Teca Pereira), in the backlands of a coastal town. When circumstances arise that he might have to go live with his disapproving father, Gugu fights to keep his world intact. Brazil has reached the Oscar nomination stage in the category six times and is on a roll of late, winning the category in 2024 with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here and scoring four Oscar noms in 2026 for Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent starring Wagner Moura.

German writer-director Valeska Grisebach‘s sophomore feature film The Dreamed Adventure was submitted for the race after the Bulgaria-set crime drama won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The story is set in the Bulgaria-Türkiye border town of Svilengrad, where Grisebach spent five years doing research. It centers on Veska (Yana Radeva), who crosses paths with Said (Syuleyman Letifov), an old acquaintance whose car has been stolen. She brings him along to an excavation site where she is working as an archaeologist and eventually is pulled into Said’s shady world of organized crime that exists under the town’s surface. A co-production among Germany, France, Bulgaria and Austria, Janus Films has U.S. rights. Bulgaria has never advanced to the nomination stage in the Oscar category; its best effort was reaching the shortlist in 2009 with Stephan Komandarev’s The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner.