Oscar 2008: Nine Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

Oscar 2008: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

The semi-finalist films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, director

Nazis have a Jewish prisoner create fake American and British currency in order to weaken their enemies’ economies

Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Cao Hamburger, director

In 1970, during the height of the military dictatorship in Brazil, a boy is left alone in São Paulo’s Jewish quarter after his parents "go on vacation"

Canada, Days of Darkness, Denys Arcand, director

A civil servant finds solace from his drab existence by coming up with all types of Walter Mitty-like fantasies

Israel, Beaufort, Joseph Cedar, director

Israeli platoon leaves the last Israeli outpost in Lebanon

Italy, The Unknown, Giuseppe Tornatore, director

An Ukrainian house servant’s violent past comes back to terrorize the wealthy Italian family for whom she works in this David di Donatello winner

Kazakhstan, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, director

The early life of Genghis Khan

Poland, Katyn, Andrzej Wajda, director

Poles are slaughtered by the Russian Red Army, which then blames the Nazis

Russia, 12, Nikita Mikhalkov, director

Twelve Russian jurors decide the fate of a Chechen teenager charged with murdering his stepfather in this remake of Sidney Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men

Serbia, The Trap, Srdan Golubovic, director

A father turns to crime in order to save the life of his young son

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