9 foreign films vie for Oscar slot

List makers have whittled the 61 films entered in the foreign-language film category for the 79th Academy Awards down to nine contenders.

They include “Days of Glory,” Rachid Bouchareb, director (Algeria); “Water,” Deepa Mehta, director (Canada); “After the Wedding,” Susanne Bier, director (Denmark); “Avenue Montaigne,” Daniele Thompson, director (France); “The Lives of Others,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director (Germany); “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo del Toro, director (Mexico); “Black Book,” Paul Verhoeven, director (the Netherlands); “Volver,” Pedro Almodovar, director (Spain); and “Vitus,” Fredi M. Murer, director (Switzerland).

The Oscar nominees will be announced Tuesday morning; the award show is Feb. 25 at the Kodak Theatre.

Meanwhile, the American Society of Cinematographers announced 10 nominees in two television categories to be awarded at the 21st Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards Feb. 18 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

Finalists in the television movie/miniseries/pilot category include Thomas Del Ruth for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”; Adam Kane for “Heroes”; Walt Lloyd for “The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines”; Bill Roe for “Day Break”; and John Stokes for the “Umney’s Last Case” episode of “Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.”

Nominees in the episodic TV competition include Eagle Egilsson for the “CSI: Miami” episode “Darkroom”; Nathan Hope for the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” episode “Killer”; David Moxness for the “Smallville” episode “Arrow”; Bill Roe for the “Day Break” episode “What If They Find Him”; and Gale Tattersall for the “House” episode “Meaning.”