This is a list of submissions to the 55th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States. The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country.

For the 55th Academy Awards, twenty-five films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Nicaragua submitted a film for the first time. The five nominated films came from France, Nicaragua, Sweden, Soviet Union and Spain.

Spain won for the first time for Begin the Beguine by José Luis Garci.

Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Sandstorm Vent de sable / رياح رملية French, Arabic Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina Last Days of the Victim Últimos días de la víctima Spanish Adolfo Aristarain Minuet Menuet Dutch Lili Rademakers Khan Asparoukh Хан Аспарух Bulgarian Ludmil Staikov Wild Flowers Les fleurs sauvages French Jean Pierre Lefebvre The Assistant Pomocnik Slovak Zoro Zahon Tree of Knowledge Kundskabens træ Danish Nils Malmros Clean Slate Coup de Torchon French Bertrand Tavernier Fitzcarraldo German, Spanish, Asháninka, English Werner Herzog Angel Άγγελος Greek Giorgos Katakouzinos Time Stands Still Megáll az idö Hungarian, Russian Péter Gothár Inter Nos Okkar á milli: Í hita og þunga dagsins Icelandic Hrafn Gunnlaugsson Hamsin חמסין Hebrew, Arabic Daniel Wachsmann The Night of the Shooting Stars La Notte di San Lorenzo Italian Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani Onimasa 鬼龍院花子の生涯 Japanese Hideo Gosha The Cool Lakes of Death Van de koele meren des doods Dutch, French Nouchka van Brakel Alsino and the Condor Alsino y el cóndor Spanish, English Miguel Littín Victoria L Leve sitt liv Norwegian Petter Vennerød and Svend Wam Francisca Portuguese Manoel de Oliveira Private Life Частная жизнь Russian Yuli Raizman Begin the Beguine Volver a empezar Spanish José Luis Garci The Flight of the Eagle Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd Swedish, French Jan Troell Yol Turkish, Kurdish Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney The Battle for the Republic of China 辛亥双十 Mandarin Ding Shan Xi The Smell of Quinces Miris dunja Serbo-Croatian Mirza Idrizović

Notes Switzerland was allowed to submit their Palme d'Or-winning entry Yol,YOL - Festival de Cannes a film in Turkish by a pair of Turkish directors. The film had been banned for political content at home, and was smuggled into Switzerland and edited in Paris.

References