Is the 2021 International Feature Film Shortlist a Step Forward for an Embattled Oscar Category? Jessica Kiang, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail Eligibility controversies. Category name changes. Executive committee “saves” allowed. Executive committee “saves” disallowed. The introduction of a nine-entry shortlist. The expansion to 10. Then to 15…and so on. There has been no Academy Award category more frequently and fitfully tinkered with than best international feature film (formerly best foreign language feature). And so to the overriding question coming out of yesterday’s shortlist of 15 titles (formerly 10; née 9): have all the tinkerings been worth it? Have we finally — maybe even just randomly — hit on the precise combination of variables that will make the selection bulletproof? For the 93rd Academy Awards, with its numerological kismet of 93 international film submissions (equalling last year’s record-setting tally), and its reigning champ “Parasite” being, for the first time in history, also the best picture winner, it sure would be a great time to declare this most broken of categories “fixed.”