Asian cinema is once again shaping up to be a major force in the race for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, with films from Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Cambodia among the submissions announced so far for the 99th Academy Awards.
The 2027 Oscars will take place on March 14, 2027, with the Academy scheduled to announce its shortlist of 15 international feature finalists on December 15, followed by the five nominees on January 21. Countries have until September 30 to submit their films.
For Asian filmmakers, the race for the international feature film category is notable in that this year there is a wide variety of stories to be told – from family dramas and trauma of the past to spirituality, mortality, and evolving human relationships.
Singapore
Singapore has submitted Anthony Chen’s film We Are All Strangers, the third and final installment of the director’s award-winning “Growing Up” trilogy, started with Ilo Ilo and continued with Wet Season.
The film tells the story of a 21-year-old man and his widowed father whose family life undergoes change thanks to the arrival of a woman in their lives. The stars of the movie are Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler. We Are All Strangers is the first Singaporean film competing at the Berlinale Competition and is going to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival.
This submission means yet another attempt by the filmmakers from Singapore to get noticed in a category where they have not had any nominations to date.
Read more: Yeo Yann Yann Talks “Throwing Dark Energy” Into Villain Role in Tom Hardy Action Thriller ‘Havoc’
Singapore made its first submission to the international feature film race in 1960; since then, the country did not participate in the race until 2005 when Eric Khoo’s film Be With Me was submitted to the Academy. As reported by ScreenDaily, We Are All Strangers is Singapore’s 20th submission to the Oscars.
Japan
Japan has decided to go for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden, which is the second time for the director to represent the country at the Oscars.
Hamaguchi previously won the international feature film Oscar for Japan with his Drive My Car in 2022. This time, the film focuses on the relationship between the director of a French care home for elderly people and a Japanese theatre director diagnosed with cancer.
The movie premiered in the Cannes Competition section where its stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto got the Best Actress award.
Read more: Japan Selects Ryusuke Hamaguchi Drama ‘All of a Sudden’ for the Oscars
Japan boasts a great success recently achieved in the international feature film category. In 2022, Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car won the category, in 2024, Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days was nominated for the Oscar, and Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho made the shortlist of the most recent awards cycle.
South Korea
As for South Korea, this year, the country chose Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love.
This film was selected by the 15-member jury of the Korean Film Council before its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival. What made the jury choose the film is Lee’s humanistic attitude towards life, delicate direction, and complicated characters.
Read more: Lee Chang-Dong’s ‘Possible Love’ Receives Rapturous Venice Premiere
“This is the fourth time for Lee Chang-dong to represent South Korea at the Academy Awards, after Oasis, Secret Sunshine, and Burning. The last film mentioned became the first Korean film to make it to the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar,” states ScreenDaily.
Taiwan
In turn, Taiwan has submitted Chen Yu-hsun’s A Foggy Tale.
This film is set during the White Terror period in the history of Taiwan and tells the story of a girl who has come to northern Taiwan alone in order to pick up the remains of her brother who was executed there.
A Foggy Tale opened the 2025 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and became one of the leading candidates for the Golden Horse Awards, receiving 11 nominations and winning four awards, among which was Best Narrative Feature.
Taiwan has had much success in the international feature film category through the years. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the Oscar in 2001, and some other films of this country made it to the shortlist of the category, among which were Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, A Sun and last year’s Left-Handed Girl.
Thailand
Thailand has selected 9 Temples To Heaven, directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse.
This is the directorial debut in the fiction feature category. Produced by Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the film tells the story of a family of nine who goes on a day trip to nine temples after a fortune teller informs them that their 83-year-old grandmother may not make it to her next birthday.
Read more: Thailand Submits Cannes Contender ‘9 Temples to Heaven’ for the Oscars
The film gives Thailand another chance to develop the momentum created with How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which became the first film of the country to make it to the shortlist of the international feature film category in 2024.
Cambodia
Lastly, Cambodia has chosen Polen Ly’s film Becoming Human.
Becoming Human is the story of a spirit guardian of an abandoned cinema and his dilemma of becoming a human being or remaining a homeless ghost. The film premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival before screening at such festivals as Busan, BFI London, Hong Kong Asia, Singapore and Taipei Golden Horse. It also won the top prize at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival.
For Cambodia, this submission means yet another attempt to capitalize on the rising international reputation of the country’s film industry. Cambodia got its first nomination at the Oscars in 2013 with Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture. Later, Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul made it to the shortlist of 2022.
In general, this list of Asian films submitted for the Academy Awards proves that Asian cinema has something to offer beyond clichés.
With the Academy submission deadline of September 30 still looming, more Asian countries could be making their selections soon. According to the current list from ScreenDaily, countries like China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are still missing from the list of Asian selections.
This means that the upcoming weeks are crucial times for Asian cinema.
The international feature category is one of the Academy’s most important ways of looking at film-making outside Hollywood, and the 2027 race is already showing just how broad this window can get.
From the intimate family drama from Singapore by A
nthony Chen to the meditation on the nature of care and death by Hamaguchi, the intricate human relations by Lee Chang-dong, the examination of Taiwan’s past by Chen Yu-hsuan, the spiritual journey with his family by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, and the magical tribute to the cinema by Polen Ly, Asian filmmakers have entered this year’s Oscar race with their local stories full of universal themes.
Now comes the big question – which of these films will survive the international feature race at the Academy and whether Asia will win yet another Oscar in the category that has a history of recognizing its unique voices.
