Foreign Langauge Oscar: The Short List

After all the love on the festival circuit, I am surprised not to see Police, Adjective on the final short list for the Best Foreign Language Film nominees.  AMPAS has narrowed it down to nine, with further pruning to five to come.  Looks like Michael Haneke is the clear front-runner in this category with The White Ribbon, but this one is often very hard to predict.  And yes, it is sad that Bong Joon-Ho's Mother did not make the cut.

The 9 are below:

El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella - Argentina
Samson & Delilah, Warwick Thornton - Australia
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Stephan Komandarev - Bulgaria
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard - France
The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke - Germany
 Ajami, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani - Israel
Kelin, directed by Ermek Tursunov - Kazakhstan, - Kazakhstan
Winter in Wartime, directed by Martin Koolhoven - The Netherlands
The Milk of Sorrow, directed by Claudia Llosa - Peru