Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards®. Sixty-five films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, Revanche, Gotz Spielmann, director;

Canada, The Necessities of Life, Benoit Pilon, director;

France, The Class, Laurent Cantet, director;

Germany, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Uli Edel, director;

Israel, Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman, director;

Japan, Departures, Yojiro Takita, director;

Mexico, Tear This Heart Out, Roberto Sneider, director;

Sweden, Everlasting Moments Jan Troell, director;

Turkey, 3 Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2008 are being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 65 eligible films between mid-October and January 10. That group's top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy's Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five 2008 nominees by specially selected committees in New York and Los Angeles. The committee members will spend this Friday, Saturday and Sunday viewing three of the films each day.

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

The Class was released December 19th, 2008 and stars François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Angélica Sancio, Arthur Fogel, Boubacar Toure, Burak Özyilmaz, Carl Nanor, Cherif Bounaïdja Rachedi. The film is directed by Laurent Cantet.

Waltz with Bashir was released December 26th, 2008 and stars Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ari Folman, Dror Harazi, Yehezkel Lazarov, Mickey Leon, Ori Sivan, Zahava Solomon. The film is directed by Ari Folman.

Departures was released May 29th, 2009 and stars Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Kimiko Yo, Takashi Sasano, Tetta Sugimoto, Tôru Minegishi. The film is directed by Yôjirô Takita.