Romania has submitted "The Japanese Dog" as its official Oscar selection for the foreign film category.

The National Center of Cinematography announced the news a few days ago after Turkey, Poland and Hungary submitted.

"The Japanese Dog" is directed by first time helmer Tudor Cristian Jurgiu and tells the story of a farmer who is recovering from the death of his wife in a devastated flood. Having also lost his house, Costache spends his days trying to fix up his new home.

The old man turns out to have a son who lives in Japan and whom he hasn't told anything about his mother's death. When the son finds out he rushes to his home village, accompanied by his Japanese wife and their 7-year-old son. What follows are a few days in which the lonely and grumpy Costache gets a bit closer to his son and finds happiness in his newfound family.

The feature opened at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2013 where it was met to rave reviews. The feature also competed for the Gopos Awards in Romania, which are equivalent to the Oscars. However, the drama lost to last year's Romania submission "Child's Pose."

Romania has been submitting to the Academy Awards ever since 1966, but has yet to be nominated in the Foreign Film category. The country had two strong chances in the past 10 years. In 2007, Romania submitted "4 Months 3 Weeks, 2 Days" after winning the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It was considered an early Oscar favorite, but it failed to make the top nine shortlist.

In 2012 "Beyond the Hills," which premiered at Cannes, made the top ten shortlist. However, it failed to receive the nomination.

"The Japanese Dog" is a bit of a surprise given the last few high profile submissions. "Child's Pose" won the Golden Bear" at the Berlin Film Festival, while "Beyond the Hills" competed for the Palme D'Or at Cannes and went on to win the Best Actress award.

The Academy usually favors features that premiere festival such as Cannes, Venice, Tribeca, Sundance, Toronto or even Berlin. As a result, this could be a stretch for Romania.

It is also important to note that Hungary's selection "White God" and Turkey's selection "Winter Sleep" will be difficult contenders to compete with given that they won top awards at Cannes. "White God" topped the Un Certain Regard competition, while "Winter Sleep" won the Palme d'Or. Meanwhile, Poland's "Ida" premiered in Toronto to rave reviews and ended up being a major box office hit making over 3.6 million in the US.

The foreign film category has recently been won by Italy with "The Great Beauty," Austria with "Amour," Iran's "A Separation," Denmark's "in a Better World" and Argentina's "The Secret in their Eyes."

The deadline for foreign film consideration is Oct. 1. The Academy will announce the eligible submissions in October 2014. Later, nine finalists from the submitted films will be shortlisted in mid-January. The final five nominees will announced during the nominations ceremony in January 2015.

The Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 22.