Manny The Movie Guy /

From Albania to Vietnam, 63 countries are hoping that their film entry will get picked to fill one of the five slots for Best Foreign Language Film for the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Five slots, 63 countries, the competition is fierce! Is your country of choice one of the 63 hopefuls?

I'm happy that my home country, the Philippines, has an entry, the dramedy "The Woman in the Septic Tank" from director Marlon N. Rivera. Released in the Philippines on August 3rd, the film became the highest grossing independent movie in my country's cinema history. So keeping my fingers crossed for this movie!

The shortlist will be released in January and then it will be whittled down to five contenders when the nominations are announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. The winner will be announced on Oscar night on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

• Take a look at the complete list of Best Foreign Language hopefuls:
• Albania, "Amnesty," Bujar Alimani, director;
• Argentina, "Aballay," Fernando Spiner, director;
• Austria, "Breathing," Karl Markovics, director;
• Belgium, "Bullhead," Michael R. Roskam, director;
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, " Belvedere," Ahmed Imamovic, director;
• Brazil, "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within," José Padilha, director;
• Bulgaria, "Tilt," Viktor Chouchkov, Jr., director;
• Canada, "Monsieur Lazhar," Philippe Falardeau, director;
• Chile, "Violeta Went to Heaven," Andrés Wood, director;
• China, "The Flowers of War," Zhang Yimou, director;
• Colombia, "The Colors of the Mountain," Carlos César Arbeláez, director;
• Croatia, "72 Days," Danilo Serbedzija, director;
• Cuba, "Havanastation," Ian Padrón, director;
• Czech Republic, " Alois Nebel," Tomás Lunák, director;
• Denmark, "Superclásico," Ole Christian Madsen, director;
• Dominican Republic, " Love Child," Leticia Tonos, director
• Egypt, "Lust," Khaled el Hagar, director;
• Estonia, "Letters to Angel," Sulev Keedus, director;
• Finland, "Le Havre," Aki Kaurismäki, director;
• France, "Declaration of War," Valérie Donzelli, director;
• Georgia, "Chantrapas," Otar Iosseliani, director;
• Germany, "Pina," Wim Wenders, director;
• Greece, "Attenberg," Athina Rachel Tsangari, director;
• Hong Kong, " A Simple Life," Ann Hui, director;
• Hungary, "The Turin Horse," Béela Tarr, director;
• Iceland, "Volcano," Rúnar Rúnarsson, director;
• India, "Abu, Son of Adam," Salim Ahamed, director;
• Indonesia, "Under the Protection of Ka'Bah," Hanny R. Saputra, director;
• Iran, "A Separation," Asghar Farhadi, director;
• Ireland, "As If I Am Not There," Juanita Wilson, director;
• Israel, "Footnote," Joseph Cedar, director;
• Italy, "Terraferma," Emanuele Crialese, director;
• Japan, "Postcard," Kaneto Shindo, director;
• Kazakhstan, "Returning to the ‘A,’" Egor Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, director;
• Lebanon, "Where Do We Go Now?" Nadine Labaki, director;
• Lithuania, "Back to Your Arms," Kristijonas Vildziunas, director;
• Macedonia, "Punk Is Not Dead," Vladimir Blazevski, director;
• Mexico, "Miss Bala," Gerardo Naranjo, director;
• Morocco, "Omar Killed Me," Roschdy Zem, director;
• Netherlands, "Sonny Boy," Maria Peters, director;
• New Zealand, " The Orator," Tusi Tamasese, director;
• Norway, "Happy, Happy," Anne Sewitsky, director;
• Peru, "October," Diego Vega and Daniel Vega, directors;
• Philippines, "The Woman in the Septic Tank," Marlon N. Rivera, director;
• Poland, "In Darkness," Agnieszka Holland, director;
• Portugal, "José and Pilar," Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, director;
• Romania, "Morgen," Marian Crisan, director;
• Russia, "Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel," Nikita Mikhalkov, director;
• Serbia, "Montevideo: Taste of a Dream," Dragan Bjelogrlić, director;
• Singapore, "Tatsumi," Eric Khoo, director;
• Slovak Republic, " Gypsy," Martin Sulík, director;
• South Africa, " Beauty," Oliver Hermanus, director;
• South Korea," The Front Line," Jang Hun, director;
• Spain, "Black Bread," Agusti Villaronga, director;
• Sweden, "Beyond," Pernilla August, director;
• Switzerland, "Summer Games," Rolando Colla, director;
• Taiwan, "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," Wei Te-sheng, director;
• Thailand, "Kon Khon," Sarunyu Wongkrachang, director;
• Turkey, "Once upon a Time in Anatolia," Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director;
• United Kingdom, " Patagonia," Marc Evans, director;
• Uruguay, "The Silent House," Gustavo Hernández, director;
• Venezuela, "Rumble of the Stones," Alejandro Bellame Palacios, director;
• Vietnam, "The Prince and the Pagoda Boy," Luu Trong Ninh, director.