Palm Springs International Film Festival Unveils Awards Buzz Section

The Palm Spring’s International Film Fest begins in January and is becoming another important stop on the road to Oscar for many contenders. The list of honorees for this year includes Natalie Portman, Tom Hanks, Casey Affleck, Nicole Kidman, the cast of Hidden Figures, and La La Land.

The Awards Buzz section is selected by Festival programmers as the strongest entries in this year’s Academy Awards® race. A special jury of international film critics will review these films to present the FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, as well as Best Actor and Best Actress in this category. The following 43 films are selected to screen (in alphabetical order by country):

o The Distinguished Citizen (Argentina), Directors: Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat
o Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (Austria), Director: Maria Schrader
o The Ardennes (Belgium), Director: Robin Pront
o Sealed Cargo (Bolivia), Director: Julia Vargas Weise
o Death in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Director: Danis Tanović
o It’s Only the End of the World (Canada), Director: Xavier Dolan
o Neruda (Chile), Director: Pablo Larraín
o On the Other Side (Croatia), Director: Zrinko Ogresta
o Land of Mine (Denmark), Director: Martin Pieter Zandvliet
o Clash (Egypt), Director: Mohamed Diab
o Mother (Estonia), Director: Kardi Kousaar
o The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Finland), Director: Juho Kuosmanen
o Elle (France), Director: Paul Verhoeven
o Toni Erdmann (Germany), Director: Maren Ade
o Kills on Wheels (Hungary), Director: Attila Till
o Sparrows (Iceland), Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson
o Interrogation (India), Director: Vetri Maaran
o The Salesman (Iran), Director: Asghar Farhadi
o El clásico (Iraq), Director: Halkawt Mustafa
o Sand Storm (Israel), Director: Elite Zexer
o Fire at Sea (Italy), Director: Gianfranco Rosi
o Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son (Japan), Director: Yoji Yamada
o Very Big Shot (Lebanon), Director: Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya
o The Liberation of Skopje (Macedonia), Directors: Rade Šerbedžija, Danilo Šerbedžija
o The Black Hen (Nepal), Director: Min Bahadur Bham
o Tonio (Netherlands), Director: Paula van der Oest
o A Flickering Truth (New Zealand), Director: Pietra Brettkelly
o The King’s Choice (Norway), Director: Erik Poppe
o The Idol (Palestine), Director: Hany Abu-Assad
o Ma’ Rosa (Philippines), Director: Brillante Mendoza
o Afterimage (Poland), Director: Andrzej Wajda
o Sieranevada (Romania), Director: Cristi Puiu
o Paradise (Russia), Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
o Barakah Meets Barakah (Saudi Arabia), Director: Mahmoud Sabbagh
o Train Driver’s Diary (Serbia), Director: Miloš Radović
o Apprentice (Singapore), Director: Boo Junfeng
o Houston, We Have a Problem! (Slovenia), Director: Ziga Virc
o Call Me Thief (South Africa), Director: Daryne Joshua
o The Age of Shadows (South Korea). Director: Kim Jee-woon
o Julieta (Spain). Director: Pedro Almodóvar
o A Man Called Ove (Sweden), Director: Hannes Holm
o My Life as a Zucchini (Switzerland), Director: Claude Barras
o Under the Shadow (UK), Director: Babak Anvari