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A few minutes ago the shortlist of nine films was announced and what everyone was expecting, except me, became reality. Yes France advanced to the next round and bet you will get a nomination; still deep inside me wish to be wrong.

With that awful exception the list is almost perfect as there are three excellent directors that deserve a nomination, Haneke, Mungiu and Meier.

These are the films that will advance to the next round.

Austria: Amour (Love), Michael Haneke
Canada: Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen
Chile: No, Pablo Larraín
Denmark: En Kongelig Affære (A Royal Affair), Nikolaj Arcel
France: Intouchables (The Intouchables), Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Iceland: Djúpið (The Deep), Baltasar Kormákur
Norway: Kon-Tiki by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg
Romania: După dealuri (Beyond the Hills), Cristian Mungiu
Switzerland: L'enfant d'en haut (Sister), Ursula Meier

What I wish will get a nomination are Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Chile and Canada; but you know that's only what I wish. Sigh.

The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. They will spend Friday, January 4, through Sunday, January 6, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots. Can't help but to comment that three of the above movies per day will be "torture" as most are really intense; so the first they see each day has better probabilities than the rest and yes, of course, there is only one movie in list that's "entertaining" which will make it look different to the others.

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.