As anyone who follows the arcane workings of the Best Foreign Language Film award knows, there is no such thing as a sure thing in the category. However, it’s fair to say that Sweden and Germany have emerged as strong contenders in the race after both countries selected high-profile films as their official entries.

Unsurprisingly, Sweden has chosen “Everlasting Moments,” a highly personal biopic from veteran filmmaker Jan Troell — a Best Director nominee back in 1973 for “The Emigrants.” The film is a portrait of Maria Larsson, Sweden’s first female photographer, who also happens to be the grandmother of Troell’s wife (and co-scripter) Agnes. The film bowed at Toronto last week to warm reviews, including this rave from Screen International:

Discreet, old fashioned, traditional and altogether admirable, this is Jan Troell in what he does best … Paying minute attention to the smallest details, taking its time but never appearing to drag its feet, immensely sympathetic to its heroes and villains alike, this is an intimate family portrait and at the same time a rich canvas of working class life … This picture has quality stamped all over it, awards are likely to come its way whether for direction, photography or the performances of Maria Heiskanen and Mikael Persbrandt.

By all accounts, it’s a stately, beautifully crafted period piece with a degree of social gravitas — difficult to see the Academy resisting that one.

On a very different note, Germany has gone with Uli Edel’s terrorism thriller “The Baader Meinhof Complex” as its entry. The film, a chronicle of the infamous left-wing Red Army Faction group that terrorised the country through the late 60s and early 70s, has yet to open in its home country, but advance word is promising. (Jeff Wells gives some useful insight here.)

The film marks a homecoming for German-born director Uli Edel after a patchy Hollywood career that peaked with “Last Exit to Brooklyn” (and work on such series as “Twin Peaks” and “Homicide: Life on the Street”), but hits its nadir with, ahem, “Body of Evidence.” Nice to see him back on track.

Two years ago, the Academy fell for a brilliantly crafted slice of recent German history in “The Lives of Others.” (The films, incidentally, share a leading lady — the wonderful Martina Gedeck.) Can “The Baader Meinhof Complex” repeat the feat? Getting selected is an accomplishment itself, considering there were such alternative possibilities as “The Wave” and “A Year Ago in Winter” from Academy favourite Caroline Link — which I’m surprised to see wasn’t in the final shortlist.

That leaves France and Italy as the major heavy-hitters yet to put forward candidates — as I’ve said before, they both have a rich pool to choose from. Finally, other countries who have recently thrown their names into the hat include Japan (low-key character comedy “Departures”) and last year’s winning nation, Austria (rural drama “Revanche”).

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• More on ‘Departures’ and a potential foreign upset
• Could ‘Departures’ upset ‘Waltz with Bashir’ in the foreign language film category?
• Is ‘The Class’ in a position to upset ‘Bashir?’
• Foreign film shortlist to drop soon
• SHORT TAKE: “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (***)