The final five nominees will be chosen by 30 committee members who will view the nine films over the weekend of 10-12th January, and will be announced with the rest of the nominees on 16 January 2014.
Here are the nine semi-finalists:
Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen
Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic
Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh
Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg
Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas
Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai
Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz
Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino
Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad