Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’or winning film and Feras Fayyad’s documentary will run for the coveted statuette to be handed out March 4 in Los Angeles. 

The two films were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. 

The Square’s selection is the first Oscar nomination-Foreign Language Category for Östlund who missed out on the nod three years ago with Force Majeure and famously captured it live on video.

Commenting on this year’s lucky draw, producer Erik Hemmendorff (Plattform) told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “It feels great. It’s a nice way to end a spectacular year for The Square!” 

Indeed After its Palme d’or in Cannes, the Swedish film bagged six European Film Awards, two Guldbagge awards for Best Director, Best Cinematography earlier this week, and it looks like a front runner at this year’s 90th Academy awards. The film was voted Best Foreign Language Film of the year by a handful of US Film Critics associations such as Boston Society of Film Critics and it can rely on specialty US distributor Magnolia Pictures’ savoir faire in the Academy Awards campaign. 

The Square’s competitors include Lebanon’s first Oscar entry The Insult by Ziad Doueiri, Russia’s Loveless by Andrey Zvyagintsev, winner of the Cannes Jury prize,  Hungary’s Golden Bear winning film On Body and Soul by Ildiko Enyedi, and Chile’s transgender film A Fantastic Woman by Sebastian Lelio. 

The Square is the second Swedish Oscar entry in a row for Best Foreign Language film after last year’s submission A Man Called Ove.  

The prolific Swedish/Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema associated to Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the James Bond movie The Spectre, received his first Oscar nomination for his work on Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Last Men in Aleppo directed by Feras Fayyad with co-director/editor Steen Johannesen is another strong Oscar contender. After its World Cinema Grand Jury prize in Sundance last year, the film about the heroic volunteers from the White Helmets in Aleppo, has picked up more than 20 international awards, including the recent US Cinema Eye Honours for Outstanding Achievement in Production. 

Last Men in Aleppo was produced by Larm Film and the Aleppo Media Centre. The US distributor is Grasshopper Film. 

Another five documentaries are vying for an Oscar, including the US film Strong Island by Yance Ford, about the 1992 murder of a young black man, a Louverture Films, co-produced by Denmark’s Final Cut for Real. The Danish company was Oscar nominated twice before with Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2016). 

For the full list of Oscar nominations, check: www.oscars.org