The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.
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. Between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented Special/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 in 1953), and were not competitive since there were no nominees but simply one winning film per year. For the 1956 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.
Unlike other Academy Awards, the Best International Feature Film Award is not presented to a specific individual. It is accepted by the winning film's director, but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. , the Academy changed its rules so that the name of the director is etched onto the Oscar statuette, in addition to the film's country. The director also gets to keep the statuette.
Over the years, the Best International Feature Film and its predecessors have been given almost exclusively to European films: out of the 74 awards handed out by the Academy since 1947 to foreign language films, fifty-seven have gone to European films, nine to Asian films, five to films from the Americas and three to African films. The late Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini directed four winning motion pictures during his lifetime, more than any other director. If Special Awards are taken into account, then Fellini's record is tied by his countryman Vittorio De Sica. The Soviet epic War and Peace (1966–67), for its part, is the longest motion picture to have won the Best Foreign Language Film Award. Filmed from 1962 to 1966, it ran for more than seven hours.
Winners and nominees In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Films in bold and dark blue background have received an Academy Award; winning films from 1947 to 1955 won a Special/Honorary Award as denoted in the key, while all other winning films won a regular Academy Award of Merit. Films that are neither highlighted nor in bold are the nominees. When sorted chronologically, the table always lists the winning film first and then the four other nominees.
The Submitting country column indicates the country that officially submitted the film to the Academy, and is not necessarily indicative of the film's main country of production. The original titles of the films are also mentioned, as well as the names of the directors and the languages used in the dialogue track, even though none of these elements is officially included in the nomination.
When several languages are used in a film, the predominant one is always listed first; the names of the other languages are written in smaller typesize and placed between brackets. When a film's original title is in a language that uses a non-Latin script, it is first transliterated into the Latin alphabet and then written in its original script.
Films from the former Yugoslavia are written in both Latin and Cyrillic due to the fact that the previously official Serbo-Croatian language used both alphabets. Chinese film titles are romanized according to the pinyin system, and are written using the characters employed in their submitting country, i.e. traditional Chinese ones for films submitted by Hong Kong and Taiwan, and simplified Chinese ones for films submitted by the People's Republic of China.
+ Table key Special/Honorary Award (1947–1955)
1940s Year Film Title used in nomination Original Title Director(s) Submitting Countries Language(s) 1947(20th) Shoe-Shine Sciuscià Vittorio De Sica Italy Italian, English 1948(21st) Monsieur Vincent Maurice Cloche France French 1949 (22nd) Bicycle Thieves Ladri di Vittorio De Sica Italy Italian
1950s Year Film Title used in nomination Original Title Director(s) Submitting Countries Language(s) 1950(23rd) The Walls of Malapaga ItalianLe mura di Malapaga René Clément {co-production} France Italy French, Italian 1951(24th) Rashomon 羅生門 Akira Kurosawa Japan Japanese 1952(25th) Forbidden Games Jeux interdits René Clément France French 1954(27th) Gate of Hell 地獄門 Teinosuke Kinugasa Japan Japanese 1955(28th) Samurai, The Legend of Musashi 宮本武蔵 Hiroshi Inagaki1956(29th) La Strada Federico Fellini Italy Italian The Captain of Köpenick Der Hauptmann von Köpenick Helmut Käutner West Germany German Gervaise René Clément France French Harp of Burma ビルマの竪琴 Kon Ichikawa Japan Japanese Qivitoq Erik Balling Denmark Danish1957(30th) Nights of Cabiria Le notti di Cabiria Federico Fellini Italy Italian The Devil Strikes at Night Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam Robert Siodmak West Germany German Gates of Paris Porte des Lilas René Clair France French Mother India मदर इंडिया Mehboob Khan India Hindi Nine Lives Ni liv Arne Skouen Norway Norwegian1958(31st) Mon Oncle Jacques Tati France French Arms and the Man Helden Franz Peter Wirth West Germany German La Venganza Juan Antonio Bardem Spain Spanish The Road a Year Long / Cesta duga godinu dana / Цеста дуга годину дана Giuseppe De Santis Yugoslavia Italian The Usual Unidentified Thieves I soliti ignoti Mario Monicelli Italy 1959 (32nd) Black Orpheus Orfeu Negro Marcel Camus FranceBrazilian Portuguese The Bridge Die Brücke Bernhard Wicki West Germany German The Great War La grande guerra Mario Monicelli Italy Italian Paw Astrid Henning-Jensen Denmark Danish The Village on the River Dorp aan de rivier Fons Rademakers Netherlands Dutch
1960s Year Film Title used in nomination Original Title Director(s) Submitting Countries Language(s)1960(33rd) The Virgin Spring Jungfrukällan Ingmar Bergman Sweden Swedish Kapo Gillo Pontecorvo Italy Italian La Vérité Henri-Georges Clouzot France French Macario Roberto Gavaldón Mexico Spanish The Ninth Circle Deveti krug / Девети круг France Štiglic Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian1961(34th) Through a Glass Darkly Såsom i en spegel Ingmar Bergman Sweden Swedish Harry and the Butler Harry og kammertjeneren Bent Christensen Denmark Danish Immortal Love 永遠の人 Keisuke Kinoshita Japan Japanese The Important Man Animas Trujano / El hombre importante Ismael Rodríguez MexicoSpanish Plácido Luis García Berlanga Spain1962(35th) Sundays and Cybele Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray Serge Bourguignon France French Electra Ηλέκτρα Michael Cacoyannis Greece Greek The Four Days of Naples Le quattro giornate di Napoli Nanni Loy Italy Italian Keeper of Promises (The Given Word) O Pagador de Promessas Anselmo Duarte Brazil Brazilian Portuguese Tlayucan Luis Alcoriza Mexico Spanish 1963(36th) 8½ Federico Fellini Italy Italian Knife in the Water Nóż w wodzie Roman Polanski Poland Polish Los Tarantos Francisco Rovira Beleta Spain Spanish The Red Lanterns Τα κόκκινα φανάρια Vasilis Georgiadis Greece Greek Twin Sisters of Kyoto 古都 Noboru Nakamura Japan Japanese1964(37th) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Ieri, oggi, domani Vittorio De Sica Italy Italian Raven's End Kvarteret Korpen Bo Widerberg Sweden Swedish Sallah Shabati סאלח שבתי Ephraim Kishon Israel Hebrew The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Les Parapluies de Cherbourg Jacques Demy France French Woman in the Dunes 砂の女 Hiroshi Teshigahara Japan Japanese 1965(38th) The Shop on Main Street Obchod na korze Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos Czechoslovakia Slovak Blood on the Land Το χώμα βάφτηκε κόκκινο Vasilis Georgiadis Greece Greek Dear John Käre John Lars-Magnus Lindgren Sweden Swedish Kwaidan 怪談 Masaki Kobayashi Japan Japanese Marriage Italian Style Matrimonio all'italiana Vittorio De Sica Italy Italian 1966(39th) A Man and a Woman Un homme et une femme Claude Lelouch France French The Battle of Algiers La battaglia di Algeri Gillo Pontecorvo Italy Arabic, French Loves of a Blonde Lásky jedné plavovlásky Miloš Forman Czechoslovakia Czech Pharaoh Faraon Jerzy Kawalerowicz Poland Polish Three Tri / Три Aleksandar Petrović Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian 1967(40th) Closely Watched Trains Ostře sledované vlaky Jiří Menzel Czechoslovakia Czech, German Bewitched Love El amor brujo Francisco Rovira Beleta Spain Spanish I Even Met Happy Gypsies Skupljači perja / Скупљачи перја Aleksandar Petrović Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian Live for Life Vivre pour vivre Claude Lelouch France French Portrait of Chieko 智恵子抄 Noboru Nakamura Japan Japanese 1968 (41st) War and Peace Война и мир Sergei Bondarchuk Soviet Union Russian, French, German The Boys of Paul Street A Pál-utcai fiúk Zoltán Fábri Hungary Hungarian The Firemen's Ball Hoří, má panenko Miloš Forman Czechoslovakia Czech The Girl with the Pistol La ragazza con la pistola Mario Monicelli Italy Italian Stolen Kisses Baisers volés François Truffaut France French 1969 (42nd) Z Costa-Gavras Algeria French, Russian, English Bo Widerberg Sweden Swedish Battle of Neretva Bitka na Neretvi / Битка на Неретви Veljko Bulajić Yugoslavia Serbo-Croatian, Italian, German, English The Brothers Karamazov Братья Карамазовы Kirill Lavrov, Ivan Pyryev and Mikhail Ulyanov Soviet Union Russian My Night with Maud Ma nuit chez Maud Éric Rohmer France French
1970s