The United Kingdom has submitted "Under the Shadow" to represent the country at the Oscars.

Directed by Babk Anvari, the film tells the story of a mother and daughter who struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war-torn Tehran of the 1980s. When a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home, they must learn to survive.

The film premiered at the Sundance, SXSW, New Directors/New Films as well as the Hamptons Film Festivals before making its theatrical premiere in October under Vertical Entertainment. The movie was also acquired by Netflix and will be streaming after its Oscar qualifying theatrical run.

"Under the Shadow" faces an uphill battle with the Academy as it is a genre horror film and the Academy tends to ignore these types of films. Last year "Goodnight Mommy" was submitted by Austria. The film was a huge box office hit and was also praised by critics as one of the scariest films of all time. However, the Academy failed to embrace it.

The UK's Oscar history is rather long but not in the Foreign Language category. The category must contain films with mostly non-English dialogue. The UK has one of the world's most visible film industries and British films, as well as British actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes crew members have been prominently featured amongst Oscar nominees since the 1930s. However, because most British features produced are in English, they are not eligible for the Foreign Language Film.

Since 1991 the country has submitted 14 films and has been nominated twice. The films included "Solomon and Gaenor" and "Hedd Wyn." Both films were in Welsh.

Every year numerous countries submit films to the Academy to compete for the Foreign Language film award. Among the films competing this year include "The Idol" "The Salesman," "Neruda," "Elle," "From Afar," "Land of Mine," "Toni Erdmann" and "Julieta. Other films that will be tough competitors include Italy's "Fire at Sea," Georgia's "House of Others," Romania's "Sieranevada," Greece's "Chevalier," Estonia's "Mother," and Bosnia's "Death in Sarajevo."

Recent winners include "Son of Saul," "Ida," "The Great Beauty" and 'In a Better World."

The Academy is slated to announce the complete list of film eligible for the award this month and on Jan. 17 it will announce the nine finalists from among the eligible films. On Jan. 24 nominations will be announced winner will be announced at the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 26.

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