"My Life as a Courgette" has been selected as Switzerland's official selection for the Academy Awards. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director's Fortnight sidebar, is an animated film, which also won the Audience Award and the Cristal for Best Feature Film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Animated films are a rarity in the foreign language category but sometimes the category surprises by nominating one. For example in 2009 the Israeli film "Waltz with Bashir" was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category but lost to "Departures."

Switzerland has been nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and two of these have won the award. The country won in 1984 for the film "Dangerous Moves" and in 1990 for "Journey of Hope." The last time the country came close to a nomination was in 2012 when "Sisters" made the January shortlist but failed to get nominated.

Last year the country submitted "Iraqi Odyssey" which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival but failed to gain enough buzz or exposure.

Every year multiple countries submit films for to compete in the Foreign Language category. Last year Hungary took home the Oscar for "Son of Saul" and competed against 81 other countries.

The deadline for submissions is Oct. 3 with the Academy announcing a list of eligible films later that month. On Jan. 17the Academy will announce the nine finalists from among the eligible films. Nominations will be announced on Jan. 24and the winner will be announced at the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 26, 2017.

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