Zhang Yimou's film runs for foreign language Oscar

A full list of entrants from 63 countries and regions for this year's Oscar foreign language film award is released at the academy's website on October 13, 2011. Mainland director Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War," Hong Kong director Ann Hui's "A Simple Life" and Taiwan director Wei Te-sheng's "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale" are on the list.

The Oscars, which are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are the world's top film honors, and being nominated for the foreign language award brings prestige that helps those movies lure audiences.

Among some of the more talked about foreign language titles already in 2011 are Polish entry "In Darkness," a Holocaust drama that played well at September's Toronto International Film Festival, and Spain's "Black Bread," which earlier this year won nine of its home country's top awards, the "Goyas."

The motion picture academy will narrow the list of 63 films to five nominees that will be named on January 24. The Oscars take place on February 26, at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles.