Frontrunners
Bhutan
“The Monk and the Gun” (Pawo Choyning Dorji)
Chile
“The Settlers” by Felipe Gálvez Haberle
Croatia
“Traces” (Dubravka Turic)
Denmark
“The Promised Land” (Nikolaj Arcel)
Finland
“Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki
France
“Taste of Things” (Tràn Anh Hùng)
Germany
“The Teachers’ Lounge” (İlker Çatak)
Italy
“Io Capitano” (Matteo Garrone)
Japan
“Perfect Days” (Wim Wenders)
Mexico
“Tótem” (Lila Avilés, Mexico)
Morocco
“The Mother of All Lies” (Asmae El Moudir)
Spain
“Society of the Snow” (J.A. Bayona)
Ukraine
“20 Days in Mariupol” by Mstyslav Chernov
United Kingdom
“The Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer
Strong Contenders
“2018” (Jude Anthany Joseph, India)
Turkey
“About Dry Grasses” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
“Alexander” (Ardit Sadiku, Albania)
“Amerikatsi” (Michael A. Goorjian, Armenia)
“Autobiography” (Makbul Mubarak, Indonesia)
“Bad Living” (João Canijo, Portugal)
“Banel & Adama” (Pular Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Senegal)
“Because My Thoughts are Struggling” (Milorad Milinković, Serbia)
“Behind the Haystacks” (Asimina Proedrou, Greece)
“Blaga’s Lessons” (Stephan Komandarev, Bulgaria)
“The Breaking Ice” (Anthony Chen, Singapore)
“Brothers” (Tomáš Mašín, Czech Republic)
“The Burdened” (Amr Gamal, Yemen)
Palestine
“Bye, Bye Tiberias” (Lina Soualem)
“Citizen Saint” (Tinatin Kajrishvili, Georgia)
“City of Wind” (Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, Mongolia)
“Concrete Utopia” (Um Tae-hwa, South Korea)
“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” (Radu Jude, Romania)
“The Erection of Toribio Bardell” (Adrián Saba, Peru)
“Excursion” (Una Gunjak, Bosnia/Herzegovina)
“Family Album” (Guillermo Rocamora, Uruguay)
Tunisia
“Four Daughters” (Kaouther Ben Hania)
“Four Souls of Coyote” (Áron Gauder, Hungary)
“Glorious Ashes” (Bùi Thạc Chuyên, Vietnam)
“Godland” (Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland)
“Goodbye Julia” (Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan)
“Halkara” (Bikram Sapkota, Nepal)
“Hanging Gardens” (Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji, Iraq)
“Housekeeping for Beginners” (Goran Stolevski, North Macedonia)
“I Have Electric Dreams” (Valentina Maurel, Costa Rica)
“Inshallah, a Boy” (Amjad Al-Rasheed, Jordan)
“In the Shadow of Beirut” (Stephen Gerard Kelly & Garry Keane, Ireland)
“The Last Ashes” (Toïc Tanson, Luxembourg)
“The Last Runway 2” (Armando Aquino and Mauricio Rial, Paraguay)
“A Light Never Goes Out” (Anastasia Tsang, Hong Kong)
“A Male” (Fabián Hernández Alvarado, Colombia)
“Marry My Dead Body” (Cheng Wei-hao, Taiwan)
“Melody” (Behrouz Sebt Rasoul, Tajikistan)
“The Missing” (Filipino Carl Joseph Papa, The Philippines)
“Mvera” (Daudi Anguka, Kenya)
“My Freedom” (Ilze Kunga-Melgaile, Latvia)
“The Night Guardian” (Reza Mirkarimi, Iran)
“No Ground Beneath the Feet” (Mohammad Rabby Mridha, Bangladesh)
“Omen” (Baloji, Belgium)
“Opponent” (Milad Alami, Sweden)
Poland
“The Peasants” (DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman)
“Photophobia” (Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík, Slovakia)
“Pictures of Ghosts” (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
“Photophobia” (Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekavčík, Slovakia)
“Riders” (Dominik Mencej, Slovenia)
“Rojek” (Zaynê Akyol, Canada)
Israel
“Seven Blessings” (Ayelet Menahemi)
“The Shadow of the Sun” (Miguel Ángel Ferrer, Venezuela)
“Shayda” (Noora Niasari, Australia)
“Sirin” (Senad Šahmanović, Montenegro)
“Slow” (Marija Kavtaradzé, Lithuania)
“Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” (Anna Hints, Estonia)
“Songs of the Earth” (Margreth Olin, Norway)
“Sweet Dreams” (Ena Sendijarević, The Netherlands)
“This is What I Remember” (Aktan Abdykalykov, Kyrgyzstan)
“Thunder” (Carmen Jaquier, Switzerland)
“Thunders” (Ioane Bobeica, Moldova)
“Tiger Stripes” (Amanda Nell Eu, Malaysia)
“Tito, Margot & Me” (Mercedes Arias and Delfina Vidal, Panama)
“Vera” (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, Austria)
“The Visitor” (Martín Boulocq, Bolivia)
“Voy! Voy! Voy!” (Omar Hilal, Egypt)
