The foreign film Oscar is really about language, not nationality
Hollywood's award for international cinema has little to do with where a film comes from and everything to do with what its characters speak. A Nigerian entry was disqualified for too much English, yet two films with no dialogue at all, an Algerian dance film and a Latvian animation, have been nominated.
The first Academy Awards in 1929 had no foreign category, partly because most films of the time were silent. From 1947 to 1955 the Academy handed out occasional honorary awards instead, one film a year and with no nominees; the Italian neorealist drama Shoeshine was first, and Japan's Rashomon was among the others. Board member Jean Hersholt argued such a prize would bring American film workers closer to colleagues abroad. A competitive award began with the 1956 ceremony, and its first winner, Fellini's La Strada, helped make his name.
In 2019 the Academy's governors decided the word foreign sounded outdated and renamed the category Best International Feature Film from 2020. Unusually, entries need not open in the United States at all; they must be released first in the submitting country and play at least seven consecutive days in a cinema. Countries, not studios, submit films, and a film can be rejected if its country lacked enough artistic control. Uruguay's A Place in the World remains the only nominee ever struck from the ballot for that reason. Since 2006 a submission no longer has to be in the country's official language, a change prompted when Italy's Private was barred because its characters spoke Arabic and Hebrew.
Europe dominates the record: of 77 awards to foreign-language films since 1947, 59 went to European films. Italy has won most, 14 in all, while France has the most nominations, 41. Israel has 10 nominations without a win, and Portugal 40 submissions without a single nomination. Fellini directed four winners, a record matched only by Vittorio De Sica if honorary awards count.
Directors were not even named as recipients until 2014, when the Academy began engraving their names on the statuette. In 2020 South Korea's Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture.
Source: Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
