Record 58 countries to compete for Best Foreign Film Oscar

A record 58 countries from four continents are vying for nominations in next year`s Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar category, including first time entrants Iraq and Fiji, officials said.

India, famed for its Bollywood Film Production Centre, has fielded the fantasy folk-tale "Paheli," by Amol Palekar, as its official entry. The film tells the story of a bride who meets a ghost on the way home from her wedding and eventually ends up taking the spirit as her lover.

Organizers of cinema’s top awards unveiled the entrants for the 2006 Academy Awards` Foreign Movie section yesterday, some three months ahead of the announcement of the nominations for the 78th Annual Oscars.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had invited 91 countries to present a film for consideration for the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Film and the winner will be unveiled at a star-studded show in Hollywood on March 5.

Iraq entered "Requiem of Snow," a Kurdish language film from director Jamil Rostami about Kurds praying for rain in a drought-parched area of the country.

The tiny pacific island of Fiji submitted "The Land Has Eyes," its first indigenous movie about indigenous Fijians from director Vilsoni Hereniko, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Under now hotly-disputed rules, each country can now only submit one film for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar category and that submission must be predominantly in the language of the entering country.