Foreign Films to be Screened for Festival

The Palm Springs International Film Festival will screen eight of the nine films chosen to advance in the next round of voting in the Academy Awards’ Foreign Language Film category, it was announced today.

The festival, scheduled Jan. 2-12, 2015, will screen 50 of the films that originally qualified in that category. Critics will review all 50 films to award the FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Best Actor and Best Actress at the festival, organizers said.

“The foreign language Oscar race was extremely competitive this year, so I can only imagine how challenging it was for the voters and executive committee to reach this shortlist list of nine films,” said festival Artistic Director Helen du Toit. “Of course we are delighted to be presenting eight of these films in our Awards Buzz section next month at the 26th edition of the Palm Springs International Film Festival -- and doubly thrilled that most of the directors will be here with us to celebrate.”

The eight films on the Oscars Foreign Language Film short list are:

-- “Wild Tales” (Argentina), director Damian Szifron;

-- “Tangerines” (Estonia), director Zaza Urushadze;

-- “Corn Island” (Georgia), director George Ovashvili;

-- “Timbuktu” (Mauritania/France), director Abderrahmane Sissako;

-- “Accused” (Netherlands), director Paula van der Oest;

-- “Ida” (Poland), director Pawel Pawlikowski;

-- “Leviathan” (Russia), director Andrey Zvyagintsev; and

-- “Force Majeure” (Sweden), director Ruben Ostlund.

The 87th annual Academy Awards will be held Feb. 22, 2015.

For a complete list of films and other information, call (760) 322-2930 or go to www.psfilmfest.org.