MUMBAI: The National Award winning Marathi film Court, which was India's official entry to the Oscars, is out of the Best Foreign-Language Film category for the upcoming 88th Academy Awards.

Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 88th Academy Awards. A total of 80 films had originally been considered in the category.

The nine films that have made the cut for the Best Foreign-Language Film category are as follows:Belgium’s The Brand New Testament directed by Jaco Van Dormael; Colombia’s Embrace of the Serpent directed by Ciro Guerra; Denmark’s A War directed by Tobias Lindholm; Finland’s The Fencer directed by Klaus Härö; France’s Mustang directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven; Germany’sLabyrinth of Lies directed by Giulio Ricciarelli; Hungary’s Son of Saul directed by László Nemes; Ireland’s Viva directed by Paddy Breathnach and Jordan’s Theeb directed by Naji Abu Nowar.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2015 are being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and 14 December. The 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 category’s five nominees by specially invited committees in New York, Los Angeles and London.  They will spend 8 January through 10 January, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on 14 January, 2016 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.