On March 12 , actors , directors , producers and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood , California , the center of the American film industry .
Some will receive Academy Awards for the best acting , directing , writing , music and other work on movies released last year .
The winners will receive an award called an Oscar , a small metal statue of a man , covered in gold .
The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall and weighs less than four kilograms .
But the award is extremely valuable .
Oscar winners can earn greater fame .
They can get offers to work on the best movies .
They can also earn much more money .
On Tuesday , the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored more than 300 films with Oscar nominations .
Among them are five movies competing for best foreign film .
European countries produced all the nominees except one : the movie Argentina , 1985 .
As you might have guessed , it comes from Argentina .
The South American country is not new to Academy Award history .
Argentinian movies have won the best foreign film Oscar two times already .
The most recent award came in 2009 for the film The Secret In Their Eyes .
Argentina , 1985 is a historical drama .
It tells a story about the effort to punish the country's military dictatorship after its rule ended .
Earlier this month , it won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe for best foreign language film .
That awards event is considered a signal of what is to come at the Oscars .
Another 2023 nominee is the first Irish-language film to be considered for an Oscar .
Ireland's The Quiet Girl is based on the book Foster , by Irish writer Clair Keegan .
The film tells about a young girl from a large , poor family living in difficult conditions .
She is sent to the home of distant relatives .
There , she finds warmth and love but also learns of a secret .
The Quiet Girl has earned loud praise in Ireland and other places .
The other three Oscar nominees for foreign film come from mainland Europe .
Belgium was recognized for Close .
Like Ireland's nominee , the movie centers on children and their relationships .
Close explores a close but threatened friendship between two boys .
Poland's EO was also nominated in the best international film category .
EO explores the imagined life and times of a donkey raised in a circus .
Its interactions with and experiences of the human world point to deep questions about animal connections .
EO won the Jury Prize , a major award , at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in France .
The final nominee for the best foreign film Oscar is Germany for its offering All Quiet on the Western Front .
The film is based on the 1929 book of the same name .
It tells a story of a soldier during World War One and explores the horror of such conflict .
Two earlier movie versions , both American , came out in 1930 and 1979 .
The 1930 production of All Quiet on the Western Front won the most important Academy Award of all -- Best Picture -- at the 1931 ceremony .
Check back here for more stories about other 2023 Oscar nominees in the weeks ahead .