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After a landmark Academy Awards where “Parasite” became the first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, the International Film category is at a pandemic induced crossroads. With film festivals forced to mostly adjust to virtual screenings and major bellwethers such as Cannes and Telluride scuttled, the Oscars are looking at the most wide-open race in at least a decade.

When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival all the way back in 2020, Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou had the unlikeliest movie of the moment with his debut feature “Apples.” The film, produced long before COVID-19 upended the world, dealt with a fictional pandemic in which a mysterious illness causes amnesia. There’s droll comedy and poignant drama alike as protagonist Aris (Aris Servetalis) begins a guided program to recover what he’s lost: his memory.

How would you pick up the pieces if you lost all concept of who you are? In “Apples,” the directorial debut of the Greek filmmaker, Christos Nikou, an amnesiac pandemic sweeps the globe and forces those afflicted with the disease to a recovery program involving cassette tapes and cameras. But is that enough to recover one’s identity? READ MORE: Jessie Buckley & Riz Ahmed To Lead Christos Nikou’s Sci-Fi Romance ‘Fingernails’ Here’s the film’s official synopsis: As an unpredictable, sweeping pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help him build a new life.

To many Oscar observers, there are already a ton of questions about this year’s Best Picture race. How many films will actually get nominated? Can Netflix actually land three Best Picture nominees? Will any films be seen in theaters before voting begins? But, one individual category that is even more wide open and puzzling for even the most veteran awards season strategist is the battle for the International Film, formerly Foreign Language Film, Oscar.

In a post-COVID-19 world, ruminating upon memories seems like an everyday occasion—reflecting on the ways that that civilization functioned before the impact of an unforeseen global pandemic that robbed the globe of its perceived normality.

What would you do if you woke up and couldn’t remember a thing? Not just that, but you’re not the only one with this sudden amnesia, as it spreads like an illness to other people. In the film “Apples,” the main character decides that maybe now is the time for a new beginning.