List of submissions to the 98th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film

This is a list of submissions to the 98th 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this was changed in April 2019 to Best International Feature Film, after the Academy deemed the word "Foreign" to be outdated.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 98th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must have first been released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was 1 October 2025. 92 countries submitted films, and 86 were found to be eligible by AMPAS and screened for voters. Madagascar and Papua New Guinea submitted films for the first time, and Haiti resubmitted its film disqualified from last year's list, while Greenland made a submission for the first time since 2012; however, Papua New Guinea's film did not appear on the final list. After the 15-film shortlist was announced on 16 December 2025, the five nominees were announced on 22 January 2026. For the second year in a row, two films nominated for International Feature were also nominated for Best Picture, The Secret Agent (Brazil) and Sentimental Value (Norway), with the latter receiving nine nominations.

Norway won the award for the first time with Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier, which was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Luna Park Albanian, Greek Florenc Papas Belén Spanish, English, Brazilian Portuguese Dolores Fonzi My Armenian Phantoms Իմ հայկական ուրվականները Armenian, Russian Tamara Stepanyan The Wolves Always Come at Night Чоно үүр шөнөөр ирдэг Mongolian Gabrielle Brady Peacock Pfau – Bin ich echt? German, English Taghiyev: Oil Tağıyev: Neft Azerbaijani, Russian Zaur Gasimli A House Named Shahana বাড়ির নাম শাহানা Bengali Leesa Gazi Young Mothers Jeunes mères French Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne I, the Song མོ་གི་གསང་བའི་ཞབས་ཁྲ Dzongkha, English Dechen Roder The Southern House La casa del sur Spanish Carina Oroza Daroca and Ramiro Fierro Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny Blum – Gospodari svoje budućnosti Bosnian, English, German Jasmila Žbanić The Secret Agent O Agente Secreto Brazilian Portuguese, German Kleber Mendonça Filho Tarika Стадото Bulgarian, Greek Tenement អ្នកស្នងអគារ Khmer, Japanese, English Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea The Things You Kill Öldürdüğün Şeyler Turkish, Persian, English Alireza Khatami The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo La misteriosa mirada del flamenco Spanish Diego Céspedes Dead to Rights 南京照相馆 Mandarin, Nanjingese, Shanghainese, Japanese, English Shen Ao A Poet Un poeta Spanish Simón Mesa Soto The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener El monaguillo, el cura y el jardinero Spanish Juan Manuel Fernández Fiume o morte! Fiuman, Croatian, Italian I'm Not Everything I Want to Be Ještě nejsem, kým chci být Czech Mr. Nobody Against Putin Mr. Nobody mod Putin Russian, English David Borenstein Pepe Spanish, Afrikaans, Mbukushu, German Chuzalongo Spanish, Kichwa Diego Ortuño Happy Birthday هابي بيرث داي Arabic Sarah Goher Rolling Papers Pikad paberid Estonian 100 Litres of Gold 100 litraa sahtia Finnish Teemu Nikki It Was Just an Accident یک تصادف ساده Persian, Azerbaijani Jafar Panahi Panopticon პანოპტიკონი Georgian George Sikharulidze Sound of Falling In die Sonne schauen German, Low German Mascha Schilinski Arcadia Αρκάντια Greek, English Yorgos Zois Walls Akinni Inuk Greenlandic Sofie Rørdam and Nina Paninnguaq Skydsbjerg Kidnapping Inc. Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, English The Last Dance 破·地獄 Cantonese Orphan Árva Hungarian László Nemes The Love That Remains Ástin sem eftir er Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, French, English Hlynur Pálmason Homebound Hindi Neeraj Ghaywan Sore: A Wife from the Future Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan Indonesian, Croatian, English Yandy Laurens Cause of Death: Unknown علت مرگ: نامعلوم Persian Ali Zarnegar The President's Cake مملكة القصب Arabic Hasan Hadi Sanatorium Санаторій Ukrainian Gar O’Rourke The Sea הים Arabic, Hebrew Familia Italian Francesco Costabile Kokuho 国宝 Kansai Japanese Lee Sang-il All That's Left of You اللي باقي منك Arabic, English Cherien Dabis Cadet Кадет Kazakh, Russian Black Red Yellow Кара Кызыл Сары Kyrgyz, Russian Aktan Arym Kubat Dog of God Dieva suns Latvian, German Lauris Ābele and Raitis Ābele A Sad and Beautiful World نجوم الأمل و الألم Arabic Cyril Aris The Southern Chronicles Pietinia kronikas Lithuanian Ignas Miškinis Breathing Underwater Hors d’haleine French, Luxembourgish, Spanish, Italian Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story Disco Afrika: tantara malagasy Malagasy Luck Razanajaona Pavane for an Infant 搖籃凡世 Cantonese, Malay, English, Mandarin, Southern Malaysian Hokkien Chong Keat Aun We Shall Not Be Moved No nos moverán Spanish Pierre Saint-Martin Castellanos Silent City Driver Чимээгүй хотын жолооч Mongolian Janchivdorj Sengedorj The Tower of Strength Obraz Albanian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Serbian, German Nikola Vukčević Calle Málaga Spanish, Arabic Maryam Touzani Anjila एन्जिला Nepali Milan Chams Reedland Rietland Dutch The Tale of Silyan Силјан Macedonian Tamara Kotevska Sentimental Value Affeksjonsverdi Norwegian, English, Swedish, Danish Joachim Trier Palestine 36 فلسطين ٣٦ Arabic, English Annemarie Jacir Beloved Tropic Querido trópico Spanish Papa Buka Tok Pisin, Hindi, English, Bengali Dr. Biju Under the Flags, the Sun Bajo las banderas, el sol Guarani, Spanish, German, French, English, Brazilian Portuguese Juanjo Pereira Kinra Cuzco Quechua, Spanish Marco Panatonic Magellan Magalhães Portuguese, Spanish, Cebuano, French, Latin Lav Diaz Franz German, Czech, Yiddish, English, French, Japanese Agnieszka Holland Banzo Portuguese, Principense Creole Traffic Jaful secolului Romanian, Dutch, English Hijra هجری Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, English Shahad Ameen Demba Pulaar Sun Never Again Сунце никад више Serbian David Jovanović Stranger Eyes 默視錄 Mandarin, English, Singaporean Hokkien Yeo Siew Hua Father Otec Slovak Tereza Nvotová Little Trouble Girls Kaj ti je deklica Slovene The Heart Is a Muscle Kaaps, Afrikaans, English Imran Hamdulay No Other Choice 어쩔수가없다 Korean, English Park Chan-wook Sirāt Spanish, French, English, Arabic, Catalan Oliver Laxe Eagles of the Republic نسور الجمهورية Arabic Tarik Saleh Late Shift Heldin German, Swiss German, Turkish, French, Albanian Petra Volpe Left-Handed Girl 左撇子女孩 Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien Shih-Ching Tsou Black Rabbit, White Rabbit Харгӯши сиёҳ, харгӯши сафед Tajik, Russian, Persian Shahram Mokri A Useful Ghost ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ Thai, English, Isan, Teochew Min Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke The Voice of Hind Rajab صوت هند رجب Arabic, English Kaouther Ben Hania One of Those Days When Hemme Dies Hemme'nin Öldüğü Günlerden Biri Turkish Kimote Luganda Hassan Mageye 2000 Meters to Andriivka 2000 метрів до Андріївки Ukrainian, English, Russian Mstyslav Chernov My Father's Shadow Nigerian Pidgin, English, Yoruba Akinola Davies Jr. Don't You Let Me Go Agarrame fuerte Spanish Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge Spanish Daniel Yegres Red Rain Mưa đỏ Vietnamese, English Đặng Thái Huyền

Notes Cambodia reportedly submitted Tenement by Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea, but it did not appear on the final list of films sent to Academy voters. Iran's government-controlled Farabi Cinema Foundation submitted Cause of Death: Unknown by Ali Zarnegar, bypassing critic favorites including It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi. After years of persecution and incarceration, Panahi made his film in secret without the Iranian government's permission. It was instead submitted by France, where it had been edited and co-financed. The dissident Iranian Independent Filmmaker Association, building on a statement from 2024, urged AMPAS "to reconsider its policies regarding film submissions from countries under autocratic rule." The statement held that "establishing an independent committee of global representatives — particularly those from Iran who are free from governmental affiliation — would facilitate a broader and more authentic representation of Iranian cinema". Kazakhstan submitted Cadet by , but it was disqualified by the Academy due to a conflict of interest complaint from the League of Cinematographers of Kazakhstan. Yerkinbek Ptyraliev, a member of Kazakhstan's Oscar selection committee, was the cinematographer of Cadet. Kosovo's Cinematography Center announced that they had received one submission but that the five-person selection committee declined to send it because it "did not meet the competition standards for the 'Oscar' competition", leaving Kosovo without a candidate for the third year in a row. Some local filmmakers condemned the decision including director Isa Qosja, who directed Kosovo's first-ever Oscar submission in 2014. Qosja argued that "It is better to have Kosovo's name written as a participant than for three years for Kosovo's name not to exist at all in this important competition of cinematographic culture" and criticized relying on the opinion of "three or four people" regarding the unnamed film's Oscar prospects. Malta's Academy Selection Committee received one entry, Ciao Ciao by Keith Tedesco, but chose to make no submission. The committee told Tedesco that while the "film received positive reviews from local critics and audiences... an Oscar submission must be evaluated within its specific international context. With this in mind, the committee felt that the film was not positioned strongly enough to be put forward." Tedesco called the decision "incompetence." The Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association and the Malta Producers Association, which jointly organize the selection committee, defended the decision in a statement saying Malta does not send a submission every year and there "is nothing exceptional about this year." Nepal's Oscar selection committee announced Anjila by Milan Chams as their submission. Local filmmakers, raising concerns about procedural violations, conflicts of interest and a committee operating in secrecy during a time of civil unrest, filed a formal complaint with AMPAS. Chams countered that the filmmakers who filed the complaint appeared "to be driven more by personal interest than by objective critique." Papua New Guinea formed an Oscar selection committee for the first time and reportedly submitted Papa Buka by Dr. Biju, but it did not appear on the final list of films sent to Academy voters. Senegal reportedly submitted Demba by , but it did not appear on the final list of films sent to Academy voters. Tajikistan reportedly submitted Black Rabbit, White Rabbit by Shahram Mokri, but it did not appear on the final list of films sent to Academy voters. Thailand submitted A Useful Ghost by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, but it was deemed ineligible by the Academy. Required information was not provided during the submission process, though attempts to correct it were made after the deadline had passed. The film's production company characterized it as a communication and coordination error.