The race is on for the Oscar for best foreign-language film, and the Carpetbagger’s cousin in Europe has been tracking the contest from afar, after adjusting her glasses to read subtitles for a dozen languages and wearing her fairly sensible heels to the red carpet at Cannes.

奥斯卡最佳外语片的角逐已经开始，时报博客the Carpetbagger的作者在欧洲的表亲正在跟踪这场竞争。之前，她扶了扶眼镜，读了十几种语言的字幕，穿上高度适中的高跟鞋去往戛纳红毯。

Among the 81 contenders this year are a Hungarian Holocaust film, a Romanian western, a Chilean film about errant Catholic priests, a Franco-Turkish family drama and a Taiwanese action film featuring a fierce woman who knows how to wield a sword.

在今年的81部竞争影片中，有一部关于匈牙利犹太大屠杀的影片、一部罗马尼亚西部片、一部关于出轨的天主教神父的智利影片、一部法国-土耳其家庭情节片，以及一部台湾动作片，主角是一个擅长舞剑的凶狠女人。

This month, a selection committee inside the Academy is expected to announce a shortlist of films from nine countries, which a second committee will eventually narrow down to five. The entire Academy then votes for the winner, to be announced at the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 28.

本月，学院内部的一个评审委员会将宣布一个短名单，内容为九部来自不同国家的电影，之后第二个委员会将把名单缩减为五部。最后由整个学院评选胜出者，并在2月28日的奥斯卡颁奖礼上宣布。

With so many films in the mix — most of which have not yet been released in the United States — it is difficult to game the race. But some contenders have been well received at the Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride and New York film festivals, generating positive word of mouth.

这些电影当中大多数尚未在美国上映，片数众多，竞争也格外激烈。但某些参赛影片已经在柏林、戛纳、多伦多、特柳赖德和纽约电影节上获得不俗的反响，受到好评。

On Thursday, the Golden Globes’ foreign-language nominees were announced, and sometimes this list can indicate Oscar chances. The Globe finalists are “Mustang” (France), “Son of Saul” (Hungary), “The Club” (Chile), “The Brand New Testament” (Belgium) and “The Fencer” (Finland).

星期四，金球奖宣布了最佳外语片提名，有时候，这个名单可以预测奥斯卡奖的走向。金球奖的决选名单包括法国的《野马》(Mustang)、匈牙利的《索尔之子》(Son of Saul)、智利的《神父俱乐部》(The Club)、比利时的《超新约全书》(The Brand New Testament)与芬兰的《剑客》(The Fencer)。

“Mustang,” by the Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, is an energized, politicized drama about five sisters in rural Turkey who rebel against a family that seeks to rein them in and marry them off. In The New York Times, Stephen Holden called it a “stunning debut feature.” In an interview with The Times in Paris, Ms. Ergüven said the film sprang from “the desire to tell what it is to be a girl and a woman in Turkey.”

《野马》由法国-土耳其导演德尼兹·甘兹·埃尔居(Deniz Gamze Ergüven)执导，是一部充满活力，带有政治色彩的情节剧，讲述土耳其农村的五个姊妹反抗严格控制她们，并把她们嫁掉的家庭。史蒂芬·霍尔登(Stephen Holden)在《纽约时报》发表的影评上称，它是一部“惊人的长片处女作”。在巴黎接受时报采访时，埃尔居说，这部影片来自“想要讲述身为女孩和女人在土耳其的处境的欲望”。

The movie, which received strong reviews at Cannes, was filmed in Turkish in Turkey, but it has majority French financing and crew, and so qualified as France’s Oscar submission.

这部影片在戛纳电影节获得众多好评，它在土耳其拍摄，使用土耳其语，但资方和工作人员主要来自法国，因此有资格代表法国参选奥斯卡奖。

“Son of Saul,” directed by Laszlo Nemes, has also been gaining critical momentum ever since taking the grand prize, or second place, at Cannes — a rare feat for a first feature. Set at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the film is about a day in the life of Saul (Geza Rohrig), a Hungarian Jew and member of the Sonderkommando, the Jews forced to work in the gas chambers, as he tries to bury a boy he believes to be his son.

《索尔之子》由拉斯洛·杰莱斯(Laszlo Nemes)执导，也获得了评论界的好评，在戛纳电影节上获得了评审团大奖，或者说第二大奖，这个奖项很少授予长片处女作。影片故事发生在奥斯维辛集中营，是关于索尔（格扎·罗里格[Geza Rohrig)]饰）人生中的一天，他是个匈牙利犹太人，是纳粹集中营里负责清理毒气室的犹太囚犯分遣队中的一员，他埋葬一个男孩时，觉得他是自己的儿子。

In an interview at Cannes, Mr. Nemes told The Times that he wanted to move beyond the traditional conventions of Holocaust films, and in particular what he sees as the overly sentimental vision of Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” “Son of Saul” will be released in the United States on Friday. Indiewire deemed the foreign-language Oscar race “Hungary’s to lose,” and the film also made the Golden Globe cut.

在戛纳接受时报采访时，杰莱斯说，他希望突破大屠杀电影的传统，尤其是史蒂芬·斯皮尔伯格(Steven Spielberg)过于多情善感的《辛德勒的名单》(Schindler’s List)。《索尔之子》将于周五在美国上映。Indiewire网站预测奥斯卡最佳外语片归属的文章题为“匈牙利会输的”。这部影片也入围了金球奖。

So did “The Club,” Pablo Larraín’s film about a home for defrocked Roman Catholic priests on the Chilean coast. A dark tale of crime and punishment, the film might generate interest in light of “Spotlight,” the award-winning film about the Boston Globe investigation into sexual abuse by priests and the Roman Catholic Church cover-up.

巴勃罗·拉腊因(Pablo Larraín)的《神父俱乐部》也入围了金球奖，影片讲述智利沿海地区被解除圣职的罗马天主教神父的故事。这是一个罪与罚的黑暗故事，可能会引起人们的兴趣，因为影片《聚焦》(Spotlight)反映《波士顿环球报》(Boston Globe)调查神父性侵事件以及罗马天主教会对此的掩饰同样获得了大奖。

In an interview with The Times at the Berlin Film Festival, Mr. Larraín said of the predator priests, “I think those guys are more worried to be in the newspaper than to go to hell.” His film is scheduled for release in the United States in February.

在柏林电影节上接受时报采访时，拉腊因谈起那些掠食成性的神父们，“我觉得那些人担心上报纸甚于下地狱。”他的影片将于2月在美国上映。

Some critics are cheering for the Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “The Assassin,” which took the prize for best director at Cannes and is one of Manohla Dargis’s best films of 2015. Starring Shu Qi as a female warrior, it takes place amid a power struggle in ninth-century China. Another contender is Radu Jude’s “Aferim!” a 19th-century western about the enslavement of the Roma of Romania. It won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival.

有些评论家看好台湾导演侯孝贤的《刺客聂隐娘》，它在戛纳电影节上获得最佳导演奖，亦是曼诺拉·达吉斯(Manohla Dargis)的2015年最佳影片之一。舒淇在其中饰演一个女剑客，故事发生在9世纪中国的一场权力斗争之中。另一个竞争者是拉杜·裘德(Radu Jude)的《喝彩》(Aferim!)，它是一部发生在19世纪的西部片，讲述罗马尼亚的罗姆人受到的奴役。电影在柏林电影节上获得最佳导演银熊奖。

Also in the running are Argentina’s “The Clan,” Pablo Trapero’s drama about a rugby star pulled into his family’s extortion racket during the country’s military dictatorship in the early 1980s (it won best director at the Venice Film Festival); and Iceland’s “Rams,” a dark comedy about rural sheep farmers written and directed by Grimur Hakonarson. Both films will be released in the United States next year.

竞争影片还有阿根廷的《犯罪家族》(The Clan)，这是帕布罗·查比罗(Pablo Trapero)的情节剧，讲述20世纪80年代初，这个国家处于军事独裁统治期间，一个橄榄球明星把自己的家庭拖入了敲诈勒索的骗局，影片在威尼斯电影节上获得最佳导演奖；另一部影片是冰岛的《公羊》(Rams)，这是一部黑暗的喜剧，讲述几个乡村牧羊人的故事，由格里默·哈克纳森(Grimur Hakonarson)编剧并执导。这两部影片都将于明年在美国上映。

There have been strong reviews for Brazil’s submission, “The Second Mother,” directed by Anna Muylaert, about a class struggle in Paolo, and for Austria’s “Goodnight Mommy,” a creepy drama about twins directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Canada’s submission this year is Maxime Giroux’s “Félix & Meira,” about an Orthodox Jewish housewife who leaves her husband for a secular man.

巴西的参选影片《第二个妈妈》(The Second Mother)也获得好评，影片由安娜·麦拉尔特(Anna Muylaert)执导，讲述发生在圣保罗的一场阶级观念斗争，此外还有奥地利的《晚安妈咪》(Goodnight Mommy)，这是一部颓废的情节剧，讲述一堆孪生子的故事，由维罗妮卡·弗兰茨(Veronika Franz)和塞弗林·菲亚拉(Severin Fiala)执导。今年加拿大的参选影片是《费利克斯和梅拉》(Félix & Meira)，由马克西姆·吉鲁(Maxime Giroux)执导，讲述一个为了离开丈夫，与不信宗教的男子相恋的东正教犹太家庭主妇的故事。

A film from Afghanistan, “Utopia,” was disqualified by the Academy since it was deemed to have too much English-language dialogue. (Films must be predominantly in a foreign language.)

来自阿富汗的电影《乌托邦》(Utopia) 因为有太多英语对白而落选学院奖名单。（参选影片必须以一种外语为主要语言。）