List of submissions to the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film

This is a list of submissions to the 97th Academy Awards for the Best International Feature Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film every year since the award was created in 1956. The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The International Feature Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. The category was previously called the Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed in April 2019 to Best International Feature Film, after the Academy deemed the word "Foreign" to be outdated.

For the 97th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must have first been released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 November 2023 and 30 September 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was 2 October 2024. 89 countries submitted films, and 85 were found to be eligible by AMPAS and screened for voters. Tajikistan resubmitted its film disqualified from last year's list. After the 15-film shortlist was announced on 17 December 2024, the five nominees were announced on 23 January 2025. For the first time, two films nominated for International Feature were also nominated for Best Picture, I'm Still Here (Brazil) and Emilia Pérez (France), with the latter receiving 13 nominations.

Brazil won the award for the first time with I'm Still Here by Walter Salles, which was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress (Fernanda Torres).

Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Waterdrop Pikë uji Albanian, Italian Robert Budina Algiers 196 متر Arabic, French Chakib Taleb-Bendiab Kill the Jockey El jockey Spanish Luis Ortega Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev Յաշան և Լեոնիդ Բրեժնևը Armenian, Russian The Devil's Bath Des Teufels Bad Central Bavarian Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala বলী Bengali, Chittagonian Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury Julie Keeps Quiet Julie zwijgt Dutch, Flemish, French Own Hand Mano propia Spanish My Late SummerNakon ljeta Croatian, Bosnian Danis Tanović I'm Still Here Ainda Estou Aqui Brazilian Portuguese Walter Salles Triumph Триумф Bulgarian Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov Meeting with Pol Pot Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot French, Khmer Rithy Panh Cameroonian Pidgin English Ngang Romanus Ntseh Universal Language Une langue universelle / آواز بوقلمون French, Persian Matthew Rankin In Her Place El lugar de la otra Spanish Maite Alberdi The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru 里斯本丸沉没 English, Wu, Mandarin, Japanese Fang Li SpanishFelipe Holguín Memories of a Burning Body Memorias de un cuerpo que arde Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day Lijepa večer, lijep dan Croatian Ivona Juka Waves Vlny Czech, Slovak, French, Italian, Russian Jiří Mádl The Girl with the Needle Pigen med nålen Danish Magnus von Horn Aire: Just Breathe Aire Spanish Leticia Tonos Behind the Mist Al otro lado de la niebla Spanish, English, Nepali Sebastián Cordero Flight 404 404 الرحلة Arabic 8 Views of Lake Biwa Biwa järve 8 nägu Estonian, Russian, Finnish Marko Raat Family Time Mummola Finnish Emilia Pérez Spanish, English Jacques Audiard The Antique ანტიკვარიატი Georgian, Russian, English Rusudan Glurjidze The Seed of the Sacred Figدانه‌ی انجیر معابد Persian Mohammad Rasoulof Murderess Φόνισσα Greek Rita Spanish Jayro Bustamante Kidnapping Inc. Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, English Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In 九龍城寨之圍城 Cantonese, Teochew Min, Japanese Soi Cheang Hungarian Lajos Koltai Touch Snerting English, Japanese, Icelandic Baltasar Kormákur Lost Ladies लापता लेडीज़ Hindi Kiran Rao Women from Rote Island Perempuan Berkelamin Darah Bilba In the Arms of the Tree در آغوش درخت Persian Baghdad Messi ميسي بغداد Arabic, Central Kurdish Sahim Omar Kalifa Kneecap Irish, English Rich Peppiatt Come Closer קרוב אלי Hebrew Vermiglio Solandro Ladin, Italian Maura Delpero Cloud クラウド Japanese Kurosawa Kiyoshi My Sweet Land حلوة يا أرضي / Տունս քաղցր ա Karabakh Armenian Баурына салу Kazakh Askhat Kuchencherekov Nawi Swahili, English Vallentine Chelluget, Apuu Mourine, and Kevin and Toby Schmutzler Paradise at Mother's Feet Бейиш - эненин таманында Kyrgyz, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Russian, Turkish, Uzbek Ruslan Akun Flow Straume No dialogue Gints Zilbalodis Arzé أرزة Arabic Mira Shaib Drowning Dry Sesės Lithuanian Laurynas Bareiša Abang Adik 富都青年 Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, Malaysian Sign Language, English Jin Ong Maltese Abigail Mallia Sujo Spanish Astrid Rondero and If Only I Could Hibernate Баавгай болохсон Mongolian Zoljargal Purevdash Supermarket Serbian Nemanja Bečanović Everybody Loves Toudaالجميع يحب تودة Arabic, Moroccan Sign Language Nabil Ayouch Shambhala शम्भाला Dolpo, Nepali Min Bahadur Bham Memory Lane De terugreis Dutch, French, English, Spanish Mai Martaba Hausa Prince Aboki Armand Norwegian Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel The Glassworker شیشہ گر, Urdu, English From Ground Zero قصص غير محكية من غزة من المسافة صفر Arabic Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, , Mustafa Al-Nabih, Muhammad Alshareef, Ala Ayob, Bashar Al Balbisi, Alaa Damo, Awad Hana, Ahmed Hassouna, Mustafa Kallab, Satoum Kareem, Mahdi Karera, Rabab Khamees, Khamees Masharawi, Wissam Moussa, Tamer Najm, Abu Hasna Nidaa, Damo Nidal, Mahmoud Reema, Etimad Weshah, and Islam Al Zrieai Wake Up MomDespierta mamá Spanish Arianne Benedetti Los últimosSpanish, Guarani Sebastián Peña Escobar Yana-Wara Aymara Óscar and Tito Catacora And So It Begins Filipino, English Ramona S. Diaz Under the Volcano Pod wulkanem Ukrainian, Spanish, English, Russian, German, Wolof Damian Kocur Grand Tour Portuguese, Burmese, Vietnamese, English, Mandarin, Thai, French, Spanish, Japanese, Filipino Miguel Gomes Three Kilometres to the End of the World Trei kilometri pâna la capatul lumii Romanian Emanuel Pârvu Dahomey French, Fon, English Mati Diop Руски конзул Serbian, Albanian La Luna Malay The Hungarian Dressmaker Ema a smrtihlav Slovak, German, Hungarian, Czech Iveta Grófová Family Therapy Odrešitev za začetnike Slovene, English, French Sonja Prosenc Old Righteous Blues Afrikaans Muneera Sallies 12.12: The Day 서울의 봄 Korean, English Kim Sung-su Saturn Return Segundo premio Spanish, English Isaki Lacuesta and The Last Journey Den sista resan Swedish, French, English Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson QueensReinas Spanish Klaudia Reynicke Old Fox 老狐狸 Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Japanese Hsiao Ya-chuan Melody ملودی / Мелодия Persian Behrouz Sebt Rasoul How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies หลานม่า Thai, Teochew Min Pat Boonnitipat Take My Breath المباين Arabic Nada Mezni Hafaiedh Life Hayat Turkish Zeki Demirkubuz La Palisiada Ля Палісіада Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, Russian, Carpathian Romani Philip Sotnychenko Santosh Hindi Sandhya Suri The Door Is There Hay una puerta ahí Spanish Facundo and Juan Ponce de León Back to LifeVuelve a la vida Spanish, English and Alfredo Hueck Đào, phở và piano Vietnamese, French

Notes China submitted The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru by Fang Li, but it was disqualified by the Academy because more than 50% of its dialogue was in English. Greece's selection process was highly controversial, beginning when the initial selection committee was replaced by the Greek Culture Ministry in August 2024. The ministry denied any members had been officially chosen and blamed an overzealous internal employee for the mix-up. In protest, all but one of the more than 20 films submitted for consideration were withdrawn by their filmmakers and a few members of the newly formed committee resigned. The Greek Culture Ministry said, despite the resignations, a quorum for voting was met, and Murderess, the only film not withdrawn from consideration, would be the Greek submission. Haiti reportedly submitted Kidnapping Inc. by , but it did not appear on the final list of films sent to Academy voters. It was submitted the following year for the 98th Academy Awards. Iran's government-controlled Farabi Cinema Foundation submitted In the Arms of the Tree by . In a statement, the dissident Iranian Independent Filmmaker Association (IIFMA) questioned why "a state-controlled entity known for censorship and repression, is still permitted to select the representative of Iranian cinema for the Oscars." They asked the Academy to reconsider partnering with Farabi because "filmmakers face severe repercussions, including imprisonment and bans, for not aligning with the regime's propaganda." Iranian independent filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was among those affected. He fled a prison sentence in Iran earlier in 2024 to live in exile in Germany, where his Iranian-set film The Seed of the Sacred Fig was chosen as the German Oscar submission. Jordan initially submitted My Sweet Land by , but later withdrew its submission due to diplomatic pressures from Azerbaijan. Uruguay selected The Door Is There by Facundo Ponce de León and Juan Ponce de León, but the film was voluntarily withdrawn by the Agencia del Cine y el Audiovisual del Uruguay (ACAU) prior to the official AMPAS announcement to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. At the time, Facundo Ponce de León was President of the ACAU. Venezuela's selection committee originally submitted Children of Las Brisas by Marianela Maldonado. The Academy ruled the film ineligible because it was shown on a streaming platform prior to its release in theaters. Back to Life by and Alfredo Hueck was submitted in its place. The Oscar selection committee for Australia invited filmmakers to make submissions, but did not end up sending a film. Bhutan, Luxembourg and North Macedonia asked for submissions, but announced they had no films eligible for entry.

References

External links Official website of the Academy Awards