TheAcademy Award for Best International Feature Film (known asBest Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of theAcademy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-basedAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to afeature-length motion picture produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.[1]
When the first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, to honor films released in 1927/28, there was no separate category for foreign language films because most of the films released in 1927 and in 1928 were silent films. Between1947 and1955, the academy presentedSpecial/Honorary Awards to the best foreign language films released in the United States. These awards, however, were not handed out on a regular basis (no award was given in1953), and were not competitive since there were no nominees but simply one winning film per year. For the1956 (29th) Academy Awards, a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films and has been given annually since then.
Although directors are the official recipients of theInternational Feature Film Oscar, it is not an individual accolade. The Academy considers it a collective award for the submitting country and the director on behalf of the film creatives as a whole. Initially, not even the winning film director used to be officially acknowledged as the recipient of the award. This just changed in 2014, whenThe Academy finally agreed to directly acknowledge filmmakers of winning International Feature Films, engraving their name on the Oscar statuette ever since.[2] Over the years, the Best International Feature Film Award and its predecessors have been given predominantly to European films: out of the seventy-seven awards handed out by the academy since1947 to foreign language films, sixty have gone toEuropean films,[3] nine toAsian films,[4] five tofilms from the Americas and three toAfrican films.Italian filmmakerFederico Fellini directed four Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award–winning motion pictures during his lifetime, a record that remains unmatched as of 2024[update] (ifSpecial Awards are taken into account, then Fellini's record is tied by his countrymanVittorio De Sica).
The most awarded foreign country isItaly, with 14 awards won (including threeSpecial Awards) and 33 nominations, while France is the foreign country with the most nominations (41 for 12 wins, including three Special Awards). Israel is the foreign country with the most nominations (10) without winning an award, while Portugal has the most submissions (40) without a nomination. In2020 (92nd), South Korea's entrantParasite became the first International Feature Film winner, as well as the first non-English language film overall, to winBest Picture.[5]
When thefirst Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929, no foreign-language film was honored. During the early post-war era (1947–1955), eight foreign language films receivedSpecial or Honorary Awards. Academy leader and board memberJean Hersholt argued that "an international award, if properly and carefully administered, would promote a closer relationship between American film craftsmen and those of other countries". The first foreign language film honored with such an award was theItalian neorealist dramaShoeshine, whose citation read: "the high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in acountry scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity". In the following years, similar awards were given to seven other films: one from Italy (The Bicycle Thief), two from France (Monsieur Vincent andForbidden Games), three from Japan (Rashomon,Gate of Hell andSamurai, The Legend of Musashi), as well as a Franco-Italianco-production (The Walls of Malapaga). These awards, however, were handed out on a discretionary rather than a regular basis (no award was given at the26th Academy Awards held in 1954), and were not competitive since there were no nominees but simply one winning film per year.[6]
A separate category for non-English-language films was created in 1956. Known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, it has been awarded every year since then.[7] The first recipient was the Italian neorealist dramaLa Strada, which helped establishFederico Fellini as one of the most important European directors.[6]
During the academy's board of governors meeting on April 23, 2019, it was decided that the category would be renamed Best International Feature Film beginning at the92nd Academy Awards in 2020. It was argued that the use of the term "Foreign" was "outdated within the global filmmaking community", and that the new name "better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience". Animated and documentary films would also be permitted in this category. The existing eligibility criteria remained.[8][9]
Unlike other Academy Awards, the International Feature Film Award does not require films to be released in the United States in order to be eligible for competition. Films competing in the category must have been first released in the country submitting them during the eligibility period defined by the rules of the academy and must have been exhibited for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial movie theater.[1] The eligibility period for the category differs from that required for most other categories: the awards year defined for the International Feature Film category usually begins and ends before the ordinary awards year, which corresponds to an exact calendar year. For the80th Academy Awards, for instance, the release deadline was set on September 30, 2007, whereas the qualifying run for most other categories was extended until December 31, 2007.[10]
Although the award is commonly referred to simply as the Foreign Film Oscar in newspaper articles and on the Internet,[11] such a designation is misleading, since a film's nationality matters much less than its language. Although a film has to be produced outside the United States in order to be nominated for the award, it also has to be in a language other than English. Foreign films withdubbed American actors can be nominated, for example,Battle of Neretva (1969) starringOrson Welles andYul Brynner. Foreign films where most of the dialogue is in English cannot qualify for the International Feature Film Award, and the academy has usually applied this requirement very seriously by disqualifying films containing too much English dialogue, the most recent case being that of theNigerian filmLionheart (2019).[12] Despite the basic importance of the foreign language requirement, the 1983 Algerian dance filmLe Bal and the 2024 Latvian animated filmFlow were nominated despite completely lacking dialogue.[13][14][15]
Another disqualifying factor is a film's television or Internet transmission before its theatrical release, hence the academy's rejection of theDutch filmBluebird (2004).[16] A film may also be refused if its submitting country has exercised insufficient artistic control over it. Several films have been declared ineligible by the academy for the latter reason, the most recent of which isPersian Lessons (2020), Belarus's entry for the93rd Academy Awards.[17] The disqualifications, however, generally take place in the pre-nomination stage, with the exception ofA Place in the World (1992),Uruguay's entry for the65th Academy Awards, which was disqualified because of insufficient Uruguayan artistic control after having secured a nomination. As of the 2021 ceremony, it is the only film to have been declared ineligible and removed from the final ballot after having been nominated in this category.
Since the2006 (79th) Academy Awards, submitted films no longer have to be in the official language of the submitting country.[18] This requirement had previously prevented countries from submitting films where most of the dialogue was spoken in a language that was non-native to the submitting country, and the academy's executive director explicitly cited as a reason for the rule change the case of theItalian filmPrivate (2004), which was disqualified simply because its main spoken languages wereArabic andHebrew, neither of which areindigenous languages of Italy.[19] This rule change enabled a country likeCanada to receive a nomination for a Hindi-language film,Water. Previously, Canada had been nominated for French-language films only, since films shot in Canada's other official language (English) were ineligible for consideration for the Foreign Language Film category. Before the rule change, Canada had submitted two films in different languages—the invented-language filmA Bullet in the Head in 1991 and theInuktitut language filmAtanarjuat: The Fast Runner in 2001. Inuktitut, one of the country'saboriginal languages, is not official throughout Canada, but was (and still is) official inNunavut and theNorthwest Territories. Neither film earned a nomination. The rule change, however, did not affect the eligibility of non-English speakingAmerican films, which are still disqualified from the category due to their nationality. Because of this, a Japanese-language film likeLetters from Iwo Jima (2006) or aMayan-language film likeApocalypto (2006) was unable to compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, even though they were both nominated for (and, in the case ofLetters from Iwo Jima, won) theGolden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which does not have similar nationality restrictions.[20] The nationality restrictions also differ from the practice of theBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for their analogous award forBest Film Not in the English Language. While BAFTA Award eligibility requires a commercial release in the United Kingdom, that body does not impose a nationality restriction.[21]
All films produced inside the United States have been ineligible for consideration regardless of the language of their dialogue track. This fact also included films produced inU.S. overseas possessions. However, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and used to be eligible despite Puerto Ricans having hadAmerican citizenship since 1917. Their best success in this award was receiving a nomination forSantiago, the Story of his New Life (1989).[22] However, in 2011 the academy decided not to allow submissions from the territory anymore.[23]
Every country (excluding the United States) is invited to submit what it considers its best film to the academy. Only one film is accepted from each country. The designation of each country's official submission has to be done by an organization, jury or committee composed of people from the film industry. For example, theBritish entry is submitted by theBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts, and theBrazilian entry is submitted by a committee under itsMinistry of Culture. Names of the members of the selecting group must be sent to the academy.
After each country has designated its official entry, English-subtitled copies of all submitted films are screened by the Foreign Language Film Award Committee(s), whose members select by secret ballot the five official nominations. This procedure was slightly modified for the2006 (79th) Academy Awards: a nine-film shortlist was published one week before the official nominations announcement,[24] and a smaller 30-member committee, which included 10 New York City-based Academy members, spent three days viewing the shortlisted films before choosing the five official nominees.[18] The procedure was amended again for the2020 (93rd) Academy Awards, allowing all Academy members to take part in this selection procedure.[25] As of 2022, the two-committee system has been reinstated with an "International Feature Film Preliminary Committee" that shortlists fifteen films and an "International Feature Film Nominating Committee" that narrows down the final five nominees.[26]
Unlike theAcademy Award for Best Picture, which goes individually to the winning film's producers, the International Feature Film Award is considered a collective award for the submitting country and the film creatives as a whole. The film director is the official recipient, who has the name written on the statue plaque after the country name and movie title. For example, the Oscar statuette won by theCanadian filmThe Barbarian Invasions (2003) was until recently on display at theMuseum of Civilization inQuebec City.[27] It is now on display at the TIFF Bell lightbox.
The rules currently governing the International Feature Film category state that "The Academy statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the film and accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative talents. For Academy Awards purposes, the country will be credited as the nominee. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the country and film title".[28] Therefore, the director is the only official recipient of the Award, accepting it during theceremony on behalf of the film creatives. But this just has happened since the 2014 change to include the movie director as official recipient on the Oscar award. The award has always been associated collectively, except for the1956 (29th) Academy Awards, when the names of the producers were included in the nomination forBest Foreign Language Film. Therefore, officially, it is considered that a director likeFederico Fellini received collectively the fourAcademy Awards which his films won in theBest Foreign Language Film category, with the 1992Honorary Award being the only Oscar that Fellini won individually.[29]
By contrast, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language is awarded to the director and producer—that award's rules specifically state that the nomination and award is presented to the director or if "a producer equally shared the creative input with the director, both names may be submitted. A maximum of two individuals will be nominated per film".[21]
In 2014, it was announced that the name of the director will be engraved onto the Oscar statuette in addition to the name of the country.[30]
Because each country chooses its official submission according to its own rules, the decisions of the nominating bodies in each respective country are sometimes mired in controversy: for instance, the Indian selection committee (Film Federation of India) was accused of bias byBhavna Talwar, the director ofDharm (2007), who claimed her film was rejected in favor ofEklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) because of the personal connections of the latter film's director and producer.[31]Vox's Alissa Wilkinson argued in 2020 that countries such as China, Russia, and Iran frequently censor their submissions, ignoring films with politically controversial messages.[32] Another major controversy came in 1985 whenAkira Kurosawa's highly acclaimedRan was not submitted for nomination by Japan, reportedly because Kurosawa was personally unpopular in the Japanese film industry.[33]
In recent years, the academy's definition of the term "country" has caused debate. The submissions for the 75th Academy Awards, for instance, became shrouded in controversy when it was reported thatHumbert Balsan, producer of the critically acclaimedPalestinian filmDivine Intervention (2002), tried to submit his picture to theAcademy but was told it could not run for the Foreign Language Film Award because theState of Palestine is not recognized by the academy in its rules. Because the academy previously had accepted films from other political entities such asHong Kong, the rejection ofDivine Intervention triggered accusations of double standards from pro-Palestinian activists, according toElectronic Intifada.[34][better source needed] Three years later, however, another Palestinian-Arab film,Paradise Now (2005), succeeded in getting nominated for the Foreign Language Film Award. The nomination also caused protests, this time frompro-Israeli groups in the United States, which objected to the academy's use of the name Palestine on its official website to designate the film's submitting country.[35] After intense lobbying from pro-Israeli groups, the academy decided to designateParadise Now as a submission from thePalestinian Authority, a move that was decried by the film's directorHany Abu-Assad.[36] During theawards ceremony, the film eventually was announced by presenterWill Smith as a submission from "thePalestinian territories."[37]
Another object of controversy is the academy's "one-country-one-film" rule, which has been criticized by some filmmakers.[38] Guy Lodge ofThe Guardian wrote in 2015 that the idea of a Best Foreign Language Film category is a "fundamentally flawed premise" and this is the "most critically sneered-at of all Oscar categories".[39] It also stated "In a perfect world—or, at least, as perfect a world as would still allow for gaudy film-award pageantry—there'd be no need for a separate best foreign language film Oscar. The fact that, after 87 years, the Academy never honored a film not predominantly in English asthe year's best says everything about their own limitations, and nothing about those of world cinema".[39] The 2019 South Korean filmParasite was the first to win both the newly named Best International Feature Film and Best Picture in the same year.[40][41]
