Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers Of War is the notable omission from the foreign language pack and there are shut-outs too for crowdpleasers Le Havre, Where Do We Go Now, Declaration Of War and Miss Bala.

Nine films advance to the next round of voting in the foreign language category for the 84th Academy Awards after members whittled the list down from 63 submissions.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Bullhead (pictured, Belgium), Michael R Roskam;

Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), Philippe Falardeau;

Superclásico (Denmark), Ole Christian Madsen;

Pina (Germany), Wim Wenders;

A Separation (Iran), Asghar Farhadi;

Footnote (Footnote), Joseph Cedar;

Omar Killed Me (Morocco), Roschdy Zem;

In Darkness (Poland), Agnieszka Holland; and

Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan), Wei Te-sheng.

The Phase I committee comprising several hundred Los Angeles-based members screened the 63 eligible films between mid-October and Jan 13. Their top six choices plus three additional selections from the Academy’s foreign language film award executive committee made up the shortlist.

This will now be whittled down to five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles who will view three films a day from Jan 20-22.

The nominees will be announced on Jan 24.

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