Oscars 2022: from Drive My Car to A Hero, Asia’s 10 hottest contenders for best international feature film at the Academy Awards
- One of the hot favourites to bag the award is Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, a story of a struggling theatre director dealing with the death of his wife
- Cliff Walkers, directed by China’s Zhang Yimou, may see a nod in this category in 2022, while Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero could earn the director his third Oscar
The 94th Academy Awards are expected to take place on March 1, 2022, and the submission deadline has now passed for the best international feature film Oscar.
A shortlist of 15 finalists is to be unveiled on December 21, from which five nominees will be announced on February 8.
Of the 93 films submitted, 27 hail from Asia. Films produced in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Iran – on two occasions – have won the award in the 21st century alone, while last year saw Hong Kong score only the third nomination in its history.
So which Asian films are most likely to find success this awards season? Below are our picks of the 10 most likely Asian candidates for Oscar glory among the submitted entries.
1. Rehana (Bangladesh, dir. Abdullah Mohammad Saad)
Bangladesh has yet to secure a nomination in the category, but this year’s submission might change all that. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival – the first film from the country to do so.