Canada’s hopes for a foreign film Oscar ended when Quebec filmmaker Benoît Pilon’s The Necessities of Life (Ce qu’il faut pour vivre) was shut out from the nominee list, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its picks on Thursday.

The drama made it to the final round of voting as one of nine films in the Oscar category. It follows the story of an Inuit hunter forced to come to Quebec City to be treated for tuberculosis in the 1950s.

The films competing in the foreign film category are The Baader Meinhof Complex from Germany, Palme d’Or winner The Class from France, Departures from Japan, Revanche from Austria, and the animation Waltz with Bashir from Israel.

Romantic fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leads all nominations with 13 nods, followed by critics’ darling Slumdog Millionaire with 10.

Canada’s only win in the foreign film category came in 2003 for Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions.