How to Win an International Feature Oscar

Jafar Panahi has had quite a year. The Iranian dissident, who has been in and out of prison and suffered travel bans over the past 15 years, was finally able to show up in person at the 2025 Cannes International Film Festival in May to accept his Palme d’Or for “It Was Just an Accident” (Neon), a feature he shot in secret in his home country.

A friend flew the footage out of Iran on a drive, and the filmmaker was able to edit the film together at his part-time home in Paris, as he has done in the past. But this time, Neon put Panahi on the stateside promo trail.

He went on “The Accidental Tour,” a national road trip from the East to the West coasts after attending the Telluride, New York, Toronto, and Middleburg Film Festivals. He gave countless interviews and Q&As. And then he learned that he was sentenced again, in absentia, to serve prison time in Iran, which needless to say did not submit his film for Oscars. France did.

A few days later at the Marrakech International Film Festival, Panahi told a theater audience, “I can’t do anything else but make films.” He’ll return to the U.S. to attend the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards in January, on the road to possible Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and International Oscar nominations.

This powerful narrative has thrust Panahi into the Oscar season spotlight. But he is not alone.

The Academy members all over the world who opt in to participate in the international voting make up about twenty percent, or 2,000, of the 10,000 overall voters. (Non-American voters comprise 24 percent of the Academy at large.) No longer called the “international committee,” these volunteers must watch twelve or thirteen assigned features out of the 86 eligible films, whether at festivals or screenings or on the Academy Screening portal, but usually view thirty or more.

Those who do get to rank the movies they’ve seen on a preferential ballot, which yields the shortlist of 15. That voting is ongoing through December 12; the shortlists will be announced on December 16. Then the international voters watch all 15 — they’re all screened at the Linwood G. Dunn Theatre in L.A. — and rank them for the final five announced on Oscar nominations day January 22. Finally, the Academy at large votes for the winner.

Here’s how to win the Best International Feature Oscar.

Play at Cannes

Ideally, you land a Competition slot so you can win a prize. In recent years, winning awards add cred and awareness to well-reviewed films, boosting chances for a distributor pick-up, from Neon’s Best Picture winners “Parasite” and “Anora” to the four competition titles that took home prizes at Cannes 2025: Panahi’s prison retribution drama “It Was Just an Accident”; Norway’s show business family drama “Sentimental Value,” from Joachim Trier (starring four acting contenders, Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas); Brazil’s popular ’70s entry “The Secret Agent,” from Kleber Mendonça Filho (starring likely Best Actor contender Wagner Moura); and Oliver Laxe’s tragic French-Spanish production “Sirât,” which picked up a surprise Golden Globe nomination not only for non-English language motion picture but for Best Score.

These are the strongest contenders for the International Feature Oscar this year, and all are distributed by Neon.

Also in Competition was “Sound of Falling” (MUBI), Germany’s entry, an innovative critic’s favorite that is less likely to play well for the wide swatch of Oscar voters.

It’s also useful to win the jury prize at Un Certain Regard, as Colombia submission “A Poet” (1-2 Special) did this year; the UK also submitted the Un Certain Regard film “My Father’s Shadow” (MUBI). And winning the Camera d’Or for a first-time filmmaker doesn’t hurt either, as Hassan Hadi did for his heart-tugging Sundance workshop entry “The President’s Cake” (Sony Pictures Classics), Iraq’s first official Cannes selection and its 13th Oscar submission (the country has never earned a nomination).

Also running strong out of Cannes Critics Week is Netflix’s four-hanky family drama “The Left-Handed Girl” (Taiwan), co-written and produced by “Anora” Oscar winner Sean Baker.

Play at Venice or Telluride

The other strong contender for the International Feature Oscar is critical favorite Park Chan-wook’s family thriller “No Other Choice,” the Korean Oscar submission that wowed audiences and critics at Venice. Neon is releasing.

If that film were to join Neon’s other four frontrunners for Best International Feature, Neon would take all five slots. An Oscar first!

The most likely film to grab that fifth slot is the follow-up from Oscar-nominated documentary “Four Daughters” from filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Tunisia, Willa), another hit at Venice incorporating live audio from a young Palestinian girl trapped in a car with the dead bodies of her family as rescuers try to break through red tape to save her.

Get Neon as Your North American Distributor

No joke.

While Sony Pictures Classics (“The President’s Cake,” Iraq), Netflix (“The Left-Handed Girl,” Taiwan), Strand (“Calle Malaga,” Morocco), and Kino Lorber (“Little Trouble Girls,” Slovenia), are all in the international hunt — and SPC delivered Best Picture and Best Actress nominations and an International win for Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” last year — lately Neon keeps nabbing Oscar contenders. And thanks to their experience with Oscar winners “Parasite,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” and “The Worst Person in the World,” they have learned how to campaign.

The question of cost vs. return is another matter. Neon CEO Tom Quinn insists that Oscar wins enhance the value of each title.

Get a distributor, period.

Many films these days do not have the support of an Amazon/MGM (Argentina’s “Belén”) or NatGeo, for example. Their North Macedonia documentary “The Tale of Silyan” could duplicate the filmmakers’ “Honeyland” feat of nominations in both International and Documentary.

Another documentary competing in both categories is “2000 Meters to Andriivka” (PBS/Frontline) from “20 Days in Mariupol” documentary-winner Mstyslav Chernov. Both of these films are most likely to land documentary nominations.

Get voters to see the movie.

For those Oscar voters who don’t attend festivals, screenings are the ticket. And the Academy takes no responsibility for how many thousands of dollars countries, producers, filmmakers, and distributors plunk down to lure voters to countless screenings and Q&As at such places as the Soho or Ross House ($40,000 a pop).

Oscar rules dictate that the screening needs to be near the food venue, so voters do not have to travel. More Academy voters show up when there’s a meal. So the more you spend, the more likely you get people to see your movie. This leaves deep-pocketed contenders at an advantage, even if the international voters push through the occasional “Yunana: A Yak in the Classroom.”

In the end, if a movie builds enough word of mouth among the voters, it can prevail. They tell each other what’s good (“Late Shift,” Switzerland) and what to avoid (The Philippines’ “Magellan”).

Hire the best publicists.

New York-based Cinetic Media, even without Ryan Werner, now head of distribution at Neon, rules the international roost. Journalists assume that Cinetic has the best taste, grabs the top films out of festivals, and executes with finesse.

Now that L.A. international top dog Fredell Pogodin has retired, her former protegee Josh Haroutunian (Divergent PR) has taken her mantle. Haroutunian, like Netflix awards czar Lisa Taback, has a steel-trap mind that tracks who has seen what, never forgets a face, and knows who is missing. This year, he’s handling campaigns for Neon, A24, and MUBI, among other accounts.

Other effective Oscar campaigners in the foreign realm include Netflix (“Left-Handed Girl,” Taiwan), BKPR (“Calle Malaga”), Nancy Willen’s Acme PR (“The Tale of Silyan,” North Macedonia), Tatiana Detlovson (“Father,” Slovakia), 42 West (“Kokuho,” Japan), Steven Raphael (Agnieszka Holland’s “Franz,” Poland), and Deborah Kolar and Jan Kean (“Kidnapping, Inc.,” Haiti).

Without their lists and access, it’s tough to compete.

Compete in Multiple Categories

One way to get voters to catch up with a movie is to campaign for several branches at once. Like “It Was Just an Accident” ($4 million worldwide), box-office hit “Sentimental Value” ($3 million domestic), is a major contender across many categories, including Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Actress, and Supporting Actress, plus crafts as well.

“The Secret Agent” is building momentum at the stateside box office as Neon pushes Moura for Best Actor. It’s in the running for a Best Picture slot, if “Jay Kelly,” “Wicked: For Good,” or “Avatar: Fire and Ash” fall out.

Voters like to get ahead of the game and knock out the real contenders.