Turkey has submitted Mustafa Kara's "Cold of Kalandar' to represent the country at the Academy Awards.

The film tells the story of Mehmet and his family living far from modern life, in a mountain village. The movie made its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival and later went on to play at the Haifa, Angers and Antalya Film Festivals.

Turkey began submitting to the Oscars in 1964 but has never been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category. The country only made the January shortlist once for the film "Three Monkeys" which won best director at the Cannes Film Festival.

Last year the country submitted "Sivas," which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. It also played at the Hamburg, Stockholm, Sarajevo and many other Film festivals and won numerous international prizes.

This year Turkey will compete against 84 other films and will face fierce competition from some of the most acclaimed festival films. Among the films competing this year include "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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