As the deadline for the 2027 Academy Awards approached at the end of September, the Nordic countries confirmed their entries for the international feature category. Denmark selected Woman Unknown, directed by May el-Toukhy, giving one of the country’s better known directors a place in a race that has treated Danish cinema kindly in recent years. Each national committee makes its choice separately, and the picks are watched closely at home.
Sweden put forward Adult Supervision, directed by the writer Alex Schulman, while Norway chose Growth of the Soil, the Hans Petter Moland drama that had just collected acting and cinematography prizes at San Sebastian. Finland entered The Squirrel, directed by Markus Lehmusruusu, and Iceland submitted The Ground Beneath Our Feet, rounding out a varied regional slate that spans period drama and contemporary stories.
Each country can submit a single film to the Academy for the category. The full field of submissions is narrowed to a shortlist in December, with nominations announced on 21 January 2027. The process gives national committees an outsized role in deciding which titles get a shot at the international feature prize, and it often sparks debate at home over the films that are left out.
Nordic films have been a steady presence in the category, and Denmark in particular has a strong recent record in the international race, with several nominations and a win in the past decade. A festival run through the autumn, at events such as Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian, often shapes how a submission is received before Academy voters begin working through the long list of entries.
The submissions set up several months of campaigning as distributors push their films toward the shortlist. For the region’s industry, the annual round is closely watched, both for the prestige a nomination brings and for the commercial lift that international attention can give a film heading into wider release. The Academy is expected to confirm the full list of submitted countries once the deadline passes. The winner of the international feature category will be revealed at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2027, after voters work through the shortlist and the final list of nominees.
