Emanuele Crialese is out of the Oscar race. The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has just announced their first short list of titles in the Oscar running for Best Foreign Language film, and "The Golden Door" was not one of them. After two selection phases, the number of candidates competing for the sought after statuette are down to 9, and these are: from Algeria, Days Of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb, from Canada (but recited in hindi) Deepa Mehta's Water, After the Wedding by Susanne Bier, from France, Avenue Montaigne by Danièle Thompson, Other peoples lives by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, from Mexico, Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, from Holland director Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, Volver by Pedro Almodovar for Spain and lastly from Switzerland, Fredi M Murer's film Vitus.