The Oscars' international feature category needs to be reformed. But how?

Rewriting the academy's rules in order to circumvent meddling governments and better reflect the best of world cinema might actually make the problem worse

- Glenn Whipp

IT'S BECOME AN ANNUAL RITE: THE SUBMISSIONS for the Oscars' international feature category — each country gets to select one film — have produced no shortage of grievances and outrage.

For starters: France picked Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or-winning moral thriller “It Was Just an Accident.” Panahi has been arrested and imprisoned by the Iranian government on multiple occasions and is banned from making movies in the country. Not surprisingly, “It Was Just an Accident” isn't Iran's Oscar selection. Instead, it's France taking up for Panahi, allowed under academy rules because the film is a French-funded production and Panahi is considered a French resident. (Losing out in turn are Netflix's “Nouvelle Vague,” about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave classic “Breathless”; Jodie Foster vehicle “A Private Life”; and animated feature contender “Arco.”)