The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given Academy Awards to foreign language films since 1945. The Academy defines a foreign language film as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. Films that meet these criteria are eligible for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. They can be nominated for awards in categories other than Best Foreign Language Film provided that they have been commercially released in Los Angeles County and comply with the special rules governing those categories. In addition, foreign-language films produced in the United States are not eligible for Best Foreign Language Film, but are eligible for awards in other categories. [1]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches.
The Academy Awards, also officially and popularly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname "Oscar". The statuette depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style.
English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca. It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse, and to a greater extent by Latin and French.
As of 2008, 24 foreign language films have won Academy Awards outside the Best Foreign Language Film category. The foreign language films with the most awards are Sweden's Fanny and Alexander and Taiwan's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , with both winning four awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. [2] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma received ten Academy Award nominations, the highest number of nominations ever garnered for a foreign language film. [3] [2] [4]
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund Strait. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. The capital city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.3 million of which 2.5 million have a foreign background. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre (57/sq mi) and the highest urban concentration is in the central and southern half of the country.
Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 historical period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. Following the death of the eponymous children's father, their mother remarries a prominent bishop who becomes abusive towards Alexander for his vivid imagination.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film directed by Ang Lee and written by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus and Tsai Kuo Jung, based on the Chinese novel by Wang Dulu. The film features an international cast of Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. [5] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award. [1] Before the award was created in 1956, the Board of Governors of the Academy voted on a film every year that was considered the best foreign language film released in the United States, and there were no submissions. These films were recipients of Academy Honorary Awards. [6]
The secret ballot, also known as Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The award celebrates motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of competitive Academy Awards are not excluded from receiving the Honorary Award.
Films that are eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film category are able to compete for other Academy Awards if they had been commercially released in Los Angeles County and fulfill the requirements of the categories they are participating in. [1] Among the foreign language films that have won Academy Awards outside the Best Foreign Language Film category, six have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Gate of Hell was the recipient of an Academy Honorary Award. [7] [8]
Gate of Hell is a 1953 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It tells the story of a samurai who tries to marry a woman he rescues, only to discover that she is married. Filmed using Eastmancolor, Gate of Hell was Daiei Film's first color film and the first Japanese color film to be released outside Japan.
The 27th Academy Awards honored the best films released in 1954. The Best Picture winner, On the Waterfront, was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Elia Kazan. It had twelve nominations and eight wins, matching two other films, Gone with the Wind (1939) and From Here to Eternity (1953), though those each had thirteen nominations.
Year (Ceremony) | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Category | Winner(s) | Country | Language(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 (75th) | Spirited Away | Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi(千と千尋の神隠し) | Animated Feature | Hayao Miyazaki | Japanese | |
2005 (78th) | March of the Penguins | La Marche de l'empereur | Documentary Feature | Luc Jacquet | French | |