List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best International Feature Film

National origin of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best International Feature Film (as of 2019)
  Won the award
  Nominated for the award
  United States (ineligible for competition)

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.[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. Between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented Special/Honorary Awards to the best foreign language films released in the United States.[2] 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,[1] but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. As of 2014, 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.[3] 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,[A] nine to Asian films,[B] 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.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Rule Fourteen: Special Rules for the Best Foreign Language Film Award". 81st Academy Awards Rules. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on June 23, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
  2. ^ "History of the Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 1, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
  3. ^ Pond, Steve (September 18, 2014). "Oscars to Add Winning Foreign Language Director's Name on Statuette". The Wrap. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
  4. ^ Arnold, William (December 16, 2007). "A rare chance to see a legendary – and lengthy – War and Peace". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved February 11, 2008.