Golden Globe Winner Predictions: Best Foreign Language Film

The competition: Divines (France), Elle (France), Neruda (Chile), The Salesman (Iran/France), Toni Erdmann (Germany)

For your information: It’s hard to tabulate statistics by country since multiple countries are sometimes credited for a given film, including one nominee this year. France has been nominated a whopping 80 times and has been credited with twelve wins and has two and a half horses in the race this year. Germany shared credit on one win out of a handful of nominations. Chile has been nominated twice, and director Pablo Larrain contended last year for “The Club.” As a bonus, he also directed “Jackie,” which is up for Best Actress. Iran has been nominated twice before and won once, for “A Separation” in 2011. All three Iranian submissions were directed by Asghar Farhadi. “Divines” was the only one of these films that wasn’t submitted for the Oscars (“Elle” was instead), but both “Elle” and “Neruda” missed the nine-wide shortlist. “Elle” is also nominated for Best Actress at this year’s Globes.

Who should win? I didn’t catch “Divines,” which is available on Netflix, and “The Salesman” won’t be released in New York City for a few weeks. I wasn’t too fond of “Toni Erdmann” and liked “Neruda,” but “Elle” is far and away the best film of the three.

Who will win? It might be “The Salesman” or “Toni Erdmann,” but I’m going to hedge my bets on the fantastic Elle.