Six new countries have submitted films for the Best Foreign Film categories at the 2015 Oscars. This week Venezuela, Sweden, Serbia, Finland, Croatia and Estonia submitted to the Academy.

Venezuela chose "The Liberator" -- translated in Spanish as "El Libertador" -- to represent the country at the Oscars. The historical drama about Simon Bolivar beat out critically acclaimed "Pelo Malo." Starring Edgar Ramirez, "The Liberator" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to mixed reviews.

However, the fact that it is the most expensive film ever produced in Latin America, an estimated $50 million, helped its cause. Additionally, since Cohen Media Group will release it in October, that means the movie will be able to compete for other categories, including Best Score, which famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel wrote.

Venezuela has never been nominated for the Academy Awards, and this selection is unlikely to be the first nominee. Mixed reviews will undoubtedly be its biggest problem, as this category is known for choosing films that are universally praised.

Sweden picked "Force Majeure" to represent it. Directed by Ruben Ostlund, the film tells the story of a Swedish family weathering a crisis while on vacation at a ski resort. During the festival, the film won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. It was also picked up for distribution by Magnolia and will be released in October.

"Force Majeure" stars Brady Corbet, Jakob Granqvist and Kristofer Hivju.

Sweden has been a frequent nominee at the Academy Awards as it has been nominated 14 times and won three Oscars. The last time the country was nominated was in 2004 when "As It Is in Heaven" competed against the Oscar winner "The Sea Inside." The country was also nominated in 2003 for Mikael Hafstrom's "Evil."

The country has come close in recent times as in 2010 it made the final nine shortlist with "Simple Simon." It also came close in 2008 with the critically-acclaimed film "Everlasting Moment."

Serbia's pick this year is "See You in Montevideo." The picture, which is in Serbian, Spanish and English, tells the story of a soccer team from Belgrade, former Republic of Yugoslavia, which gets a chance to go to the First World Football Championship (better known as the FIFA World Cup), but things get complicated along the way. The movie is filled with an international cast that includes Armand Assante, Elena Martine and Milos Bikovic.

"See You in Montevideo" has played in numerous festivals, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Sao Paolo Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, the International Latin American Cinema and won the Audience award at the Moscow International Film Festival.

While Serbia has been submitting since 1994, when the country was still known as Yugoslavia, it has yet to be nominated. This year could prove disappointing for the country once again as it has yet to acquire a U.S. distributor and did not screen at any of the big festivals.

Finland's selection for the Academy Awards is "Concrete Night." The feature, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, tells the story of a teenager in the Helsinki slums whose brother is leading him toward a life of crime.

Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo, the feature won the Jussi award, which is the equivalent to Finland's Oscars and also screened at the Warsaw and Goteborg Film Festival.

Finland has been submitting to the Academy Awards since 1973 and was nominated on one occasion. The country received its first nomination in 2002 with "The Man Without a Past." The country's biggest film since then came in 2011 when it submitted "Le Havre." That feature won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and was also featured at the New York Film Festival. However, pundits were shocked when the feature failed to make the top nine finalists for the Oscars.

By far, the biggest surprise of the week is Croatia's pick, "Cowboys." The country picked a comedy genre piece over the award-winning films "Number 55" and "The Bridge at the End of the World." "Cowboys" tells the story of eight outsiders who try to create a theater play while breaking every rule of theater craft. The comedy had its world premiere at Pula Film Festival where it won the Audience Award.

Croatia has never been nominated at the Oscars and has never made the top nine finalists. Croatia began submitting in 1992 when it became an independent country. This year, it is unlikely the country will land a nomination as the Academy hardly ever selects genre pictures in this category and the fact that it did not have an international festival run is very detrimental to Croatia's chances.

Finally, the last country to submit recently was Estonia. "Tangerines" was its pick after having premiered at the Warsaw International, Palm Springs, Seattle and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festivals.

The award-winning film takes place in the War in Abkhazia in 1990 and tells the story of an Estonian man, Ivo, who has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.

Estonia has been submitting since 1992 but has never been nominated. While "Tangerines" has had a much acclaimed festival run, it lacks enough buzz, especially since other submitted films have more press and buzz.

Among these six countries, Sweden has the best chance with the film the country submitted premiered this past May at the Cannes Film Festival. The Academy is more favorable towards films that premiere at Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Sundance and Tribeca. Films that premiere elsewhere usually have a hard time getting nominated.

While the only 13 countries have submitted, the race is getting competitive and at the moment Turkey leads the race with "Winter Sleep", as well as Hungary with "White God" and Germany with "Beloved Sisters."

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