Only Estonia and Latvia are unrepresented in this year's Oscar competition, the latter due to technical complications in submitting its selected film in time to meet the Oscar deadline.
The list includes an impressive array of internationally acclaimed filmmakers. Poland weighs in with Agnieszka Holland's touching WWII film In Darkness (www.zebrafilm.pl) based on a true story and likely to get a strong campaign push from U.S. distributor Sony Pictures, which calls the film Holland's masterwork.
Slovakia makes a strong showing with Martin Sulik's Gypsy (www.infilm.cz), a Hamlet-inspired film cast with non-professional Roma (Gypsy) actors. Film has gone on to festival acclaim after taking home the special prize of the jury at its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF (www.kviff.com).
Hungarian take-no-prisoners director Bela Tarr makes the cut with what he says will be his final film, The Turin Horse (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), cryptically inspired by the actions of nihilist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, which won the Jury's Grand Prix at the 2011 Berlinale.
Slovenian entry Silent Sonata (www.staragara.com) directed by Janez Burger swept the recent Slovenian film awards. The dialogue-free film taking place during an unspecified Balkan war premiered at Rotterdam and was picked up by world sales agent Fortissimo Films (www.fortissimo.nl).
Czechs once again highlighted their winning combination of artistically-informed and audience-appealing cinema with an animated film based on a dark comic book Alois Nebel (www.negativ.cz). The film from first-time director Tomas Lunak debuted at the Venice IFF and is represented by The Match Factory.
Croatia offers the lone comedy from the FNE region, 72 Days (www.hvac.hr), the feature film directing debut from Danilo Serbedzija, the son of international star Rade Serbedzija.
Bulgaria is represented by another film family scion, Viktor Chouchkov, son of film score composer Viktor Chuchkov, with his film directing debut Tilt (www.ch-bros.com).
Romania puts forward another of its new generation of directors, Marian Crisan with Morgen (www.mandragora.ro), winner of four awards at the Locarno film festival.
Lithuanian entry, the Cold War drama Back in Your Arms (Studio Uljana Kim, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
directed by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas, swept the Lithuanian national film awards
in May. Estonia submitted Letters to Angel directed by Sulev Keedus.
Georgian ex-pat director Otar Ioseliani makes the cut with his autobiographically-inspired film of a young politically constrained filmmaker who departs his native Georgia for France, Chantrapas (www.sotacinema.com). The film won the special jury award at the Mar del Plata FF.
Turkey competes with a Cannes festival award winner (jury grand prize), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Zenyofilm) from acclaimed director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
