Colombia will represent Latin America at the Academy Awards as "Embrace of the Serpent" made the top nine finalists.

The movie was one of the strongest contenders out of Latin America and will now compete against front-runner "Son of Saul" from Hungary and "Mustang" from France. Germany's "Labyrinth of Lies," Belgium's "The Brand New Testament," Finland's "The Fencer" and Jordan's "Theeb" will also compete. The final two contenders are Denmark's "A War" and Ireland's "Viva," which takes place in Cuba and which also represents Latin America.

As always, many in the Academy favored European films as seven of the nine films were European. Additionally, of the nine films, only one did not premiere at Cannes or Toronto. "The Fencer" is the only film that did not premiere at a major film festival.

With only nine films making the shortlist, a number of high profile films were left out including Austria's "Goodnight Mommy," Brazil's "The Second Mother," Iceland's "Rams," Iran's "Muhammad: The Messenger of God," Argentina's "El Clan" and Israel's "Baba Joon."

Other high profile films that did not make the shortlist were Portugal's "Arabian Nights - Volume 2," "The Desolate One," Sweden's "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" and Taiwan's Best Director Cannes winner "The Assassin."

Out of the nine finalists running for the Oscars, four of the films are nominated for the Golden Globes. Only Chile's "The Club" was left out of the Oscar shortlist.

The ultimate winner of the category will join previous winners "Ida," "The Great Beauty," "Amour," "A Separation" and "In a Better World."

The Foreign Film category is determined in two phases. The first phase was made up of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members. The second phase is voted by the Academy's foreign-language executive committee. The final five nominations will be announced on Jan. 14 when the Best Picture nominees are announced.

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