Will Israel, which has been placed 10 times among the five finalists but never won, finally take home the golden statuette?

Israel’s entry, Sand Storm, seems to have a real chance of ending the country’s 52-year Academy Award drought. The first feature film by Israeli director-writer Elite Zexer, Sand Storm, in Arabic, should appeal to the selection jury as a probing but sympathetic portrayal of a Bedouin family and community in the Negev.

Meanwhile, other entries indicate that the Nazi era, the Holocaust and the Second World War have lost none of their fascination for filmmakers. Austria’s Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe explores the life and suicide of the world-famous Jewish novelist. In Russia’s Paradise, a Russian noblewoman in Paris is thrown into a concentration camp for sheltering two Jews. And resistance to the Nazi occupation is a theme in Norway’s The King’s Choice.

All Oscar winners will be announced at the Academy Award gala in Hollywood on February 26, 2017.