Five films had been pre-selected for consideration by a committee comprising Alain Terzian (president of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, which includes the Académie des César), Serge Toubiana (president of UniFrance), Teresa Cremisi (president of the CNC's Commission d’Avance sur Recettes), the directors Claire Denis and Nicole Garcia, the producer Isabelle Madelaine (Dharamsala), and Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival.

• Climax by Gaspar Noé
• Custody by Xavier Legrand
• Memoir of Pain by Emmanuel Finkiel
• Les Quatre Sœurs by Claude Lanzmann
• Mademoiselle de Joncquières by Emmanuel Mouret

Following a series of meetings with each film's producers and sales agents, the committee chose Memoir of Pain by Emmanuel Finkiel to join the 90 other candidates in this category that have so far been announced by their respective countries (the closing date for submissions is October 1).

The five remaining films that will compete for the Oscar will be announced along with all other nominations on January 22, 2019, prior to the 91st Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held on February 24 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

The most recent French film to be nominated in this category was Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (2016), and the last Oscar win was in 1992 for Indochina by Régis Wargnier.