Brillante Mendoza’s “Ma’rosa,” the Philippines’ official entry to the 2017 Academy Awards, was listed as a strong contender in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Popular Oscar predictions website AwardsCircuit.com named “Ma’Rosa” as one of the Top 10 films most likely to get an Oscar nomination next year.

Their Top 5 picks are Iran’s “The Salesman,” Germany’s “Toni Erdmann,” Chile’s “Neruda,” Venezuela’s “From Afar,” and France’s “Elle.”

The website also picked 5 strong alternates and the Philippine entry is at no. 9 slot:

“Desierto” – MEXICO
“The Lure” – POLAND
“Sand Storm” – ISRAEL
“Ma’Rosa” – PHILIPPINES
“Barakah Meets Barakah” – SAUDI ARABIA

Please take note that the list and rankings are subject to change as some countries are yet to announce their official film entry.

In 2012, the website picked the Philippine entry “Bwakaw” as one of the strong contenders and correctly predicted that France’s “Amour” will win the Foreign Language Oscar. After the official nominees were revealed in February 2013, they tagged the Philippine entry as the film that “should have been nominated.”