Lithuania Picks 'How to Divorce During the War' for Oscar Race

Lithuania has selected Andrius Blaževičius's film How to Divorce During the War as its official entry for the Academy Awards' Best International Feature Film category. Variety broke the news on August 11, 2026, in a report by Leo Barraclough.

The Oscar race for international feature works as a tournament of sorts: each country submits one film, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences narrows the field to a shortlist before announcing the final nominees. A nomination can transform a small film's commercial fortunes overnight, opening doors to distribution in markets it might never have reached otherwise.

Blaževičius, a Lithuanian director, now joins a growing roster of national contenders vying for one of the most competitive categories at the Academy Awards. The title alone — How to Divorce During the War — signals a film that sits at the intersection of personal drama and geopolitical crisis, though no further plot details were confirmed in the Variety report.

New Europe Film Sales, the Berlin-based sales agency handling international rights to the film, provided imagery for Variety's coverage. Sales agencies play a quiet but central role in the awards pipeline: they shop films to distributors territory by territory, and an Oscar submission gives them a fresh calling card when approaching buyers at festivals and markets.

The international feature category has grown increasingly crowded in recent years, with well over 80 countries typically submitting films each cycle. Only five make it to the final nomination list, and a win carries both prestige and a measurable box-office lift — particularly for films from smaller producing nations that rely on the awards spotlight to secure wider theatrical release.

Lithuania has yet to land an Oscar nomination in the international feature category, a fact that gives each year's selection added weight for the country's film community. The submission itself is a statement of priorities: of all the films produced or released domestically in a given year, a committee chooses the one it believes has the strongest chance of resonating with Academy voters.

The next milestone on that road is the Academy's shortlist announcement, typically released in December, which will reveal whether Lithuania's pick advances to the next round of voting.