Three of the candidates are screening in the Warsaw International Film Festival-CentEast Market programmes, including Croatian director Ognjen Svilicic's Armin, Estonian director Ilmar Raag's The Class and Polish director Andrzej Wajda's Katyn (aka Post Mortem).

The list of 63 films to be considered for the nominations - a record number for the category - includes
Azerbaijan: Farid Gumbatov's Caucasia
Bosnia/Herzegovina: Srdan Vuletic's It's Hard to Be Nice
Bulgaria: Ilian Simeonov's Warden of the Dead
Croatia: Ognjen Svilicic's Armin
Czech Republic: Jiri Menzel's I Served the King of England

Estonia: Ilmar Raag's The Class
Georgia: Aleko Tsabadze 's The Russian Triangle
Hungary: Gyorgy Palfi's Taxidermia
Macedonia: Milcho Manchevski's Shadows
Poland: Andrzej Wajda's Katyn (aka Post Mortem)

Romania: Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Russia: Nikita Mikhalkov's 12
Serbia: Srdan Golubovic 's The Trap
Slovakia: Martin Repka's Return of the Storks
Slovenia: Janez Lapajne's Short Circuits

Azerbaijan is represented in the submissions for the first time, while Albania, Armenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Ukraine are missing. This year's Academy Award in the category was won by South Africa's contender, Gavin Hood's Tsotsi.