Denmark's entry stands out among the historic dramas crowding the foreign-language race with a ripped-from-the-headlines tale of a Danish commander in Afghanistan (played by Pilou Asbaek), who makes a war-zone decision that wreaks havoc on his personal life when he returns home.
This Amazonian drama, one of only two non-European films on the Oscar long list, is arguably the most exotic in the foreign-language race. The black-and-white drama tells two stories, set in 1909 and 1940, tracing the life of Karamakate, a shaman and last survivor of his tribe, and his encounters with two scientists searching for the sacred yakruna plant.
The only African feature in the running this year, Theeb, which won the best director honor for Naji Abu Nowar at the Venice film festival in 2014, has drawn comparisons with Lawrence of Arabia. Shot in the vast sandstone valley of Wadi Rum, the drama is set in 1916 and tells the story of a Bedouin boy struggling for survival in the midst of WWI as Ottoman forces fight to keep a grip on a crumbling empire.
The dark-horse candidate in the race, France's entry is set in Turkey and follows five independent-minded sisters who fights against a traditional, repressive society that wants to tame them into traditional female roles. Mustang has been building strong word of mouth and awards cred since its debut in Cannes, where it won the Label Europa Cinema honor.
With its combination of topic (one man's journey through a Nazi concentration camp), awards credentials (Grand Jury Prize in Cannes and multiple film critics association honors) and groundbreaking style (the film is shot entirely from the subjective viewpoint of its protagonist), Son of Saul, from first-time filmmaker Laszlo Nemes, is the movie to beat in the 2016 foreign-language race.