Istanbul Modern Cinema, presents a program of films nominated for the “Best Foreign Language Film” category in anticipation of the upcoming Oscars ceremony. Highlighting the prominent productions in this race, the selection represents a category that features films from different cultures and languages, and which attained success in film festivals across the world outside Hollywood, before their nomination for the Oscars. Some of the outstanding films in the program are: Elle, Paul Verhoeven’s first feature film in French and the subject of which sparked debates; My Life as a Zucchini (Ma Vie de Courgette), a bitter-sweet French-Swiss animation favored at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; The Salesman (Forushande) by Ashgar Farhadi – one of the most powerful representatives of contemporary Iranian cinema – is a film that presents a new moral resolution through the lives and of Rana and Emad who play the lead roles in a local rendition of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”; “Julieta, renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s 20th feature film based on a woman’s past; Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) is an Italian documentary that is based on one of the most pressing social issues of our time – Europe’s refugee crisis, and Apprentice, a Singaporeanpsychological drama set in a jail that centers on the relationship between a correctional officer and an executioner.