Oscars 2025: Bosnia and Herzegovina Picks Danis Tanovic’s ‘My Late Summer’ as Best International Feature Contender

Bosnia and Herzegovina has selected My Late Summer, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danis Tanović, as its official submission for the 2025 Oscar race in the best international feature film category.

The comedy-drama, which debuted as the opening film at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, follows Maja, a feisty 30-something (played by Anja Matković), who journeys to a remote island to resolve a family inheritance dispute only to be confronted with unresolved issues from her past. What starts as a quest for material wealth transforms into a deeper search for identity and forgiveness as she falls in love with the charming island and its quirky locals, and an unexpected romance blooms.

Propeler Film produced My Late Summer in co-production with Tangaj Production, Obala Art Centar, Bas Celik and Tramal Films.

While best known for his Bosnian films, Tanović has also tried his hand at English-language features, including the 2020 crime thriller The Postcard Killings (2020), starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Famke Janssen and Cush Jumbo; and Triage (2009), which stars Collin Farrell as a war photographer.

Tanović is no stranger to the Oscars. He remains the only Bosnian director to have won the Academy Award, taking the best international feature honor in 2002 with his anti-war drama No Man’s Land. His 2013 docudrama An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, which won two Silver Bears at the Berlin Film Festival, made the Oscar shortlist but was not nominated. The only other Bosnian director nominated for an Academy Award is Jasmila Zbanić, whose Quo Vadis, Aida? made the final 5 in 2021.

The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 97th Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 2.