Denis Villeneuve's searing family drama Incendies has made a short list of nine foreign language films in the running for an Oscar nomination.
The list will be whittled down to five when the final nominations are announced on Tuesday.
The Quebec film follows twins as they uncover their mother's horrific war-ravaged past.
Incendies was named best Canadian film by Toronto and Vancouver film critics and collected several awards on the festival circuit.
Also on the list is a South African film based on the book Life Above All by Canadian author Allan Stratton.
The last time a Canadian film made the final Oscar short list was in 2007 for Deepa Mehta's Water. The Barbarian Invasions, from Quebec director Denys Arcand, won the prize in 2004.
Other films that made today's Oscar short list include Mexico's Biutiful, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and starring Javier Bardem; and Denmark's In a Better World, which won the Golden Globe on Sunday.
The Oscars will be handed out Feb. 27 in Los Angeles.
Sixty-six films had originally qualified in the category. The short list also includes:
- Algeria's Hors la Loi (“Outside the Law”), Rachid Bouchareb, director
- Greece's Dogtooth, Yorgos Lanthimos, director
- Japan's Confessions, Tetsuya Nakashima, director
- Spain's Tambien la Lluvia (“Even the Rain”), Iciar Bollain, director
- Sweden's Simple Simon, Andreas Ohman, director
