The Republic of China (Taiwan) has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1957, and regularly since 1980. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. [1] It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which 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. [2]
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.
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.
In motion picture terminology, feature length is the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.
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For the purposes of Oscar submissions, AMPAS recognizes Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate entities, and each one regularly submits a film to the competition. Taiwan became the first of the three ethnic Chinese entities to enter the competition in 1957.
Mainland China, also known as the Chinese mainland, is the geopolitical as well as geographical area under the direct jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It includes Hainan island and strictly speaking, politically, does not include the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, even though both are partially on the geographic mainland.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Neighbouring states include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the north-east, and the Philippines to the south. The island of Taiwan has an area of 35,808 square kilometres (13,826 sq mi), with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanised population is concentrated. Taipei is the capital and largest metropolitan area. Other major cities include Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan and Taoyuan. With 23.7 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated states, and is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations (UN).
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
To date, Taiwan has submitted forty-four films for Oscar consideration. Three Taiwanese films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and all three nominated films were directed by Ang Lee: The Wedding Banquet , Eat Drink Man Woman , and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , which is the only Taiwanese film to have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. [3] [4] Taiwan initially selected Ang Lee's Lust, Caution in 2007, but AMPAS did not accept the film saying that was not a majority-Taiwanese production. Directors Chen Kunhou and Hou Hsiao-hsien have each had three films selected to represent Taiwan, but none received an Oscar nomination.
Ang LeeOBS is a Taiwanese film director and screenwriter. Born in the Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in the United States. His filmmaking career has seen him experience international critical and popular acclaim and a range of accolades.
The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 romantic comedy film directed by Ang Lee and starring Winston Chao, May Chin, Gua Ah-leh, Sihung Lung, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The screenplay concerns a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet and he has to hide the truth of his partner.
Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 Taiwanese comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee and starring Sihung Lung, Yu-wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu, and Kuei-mei Yang. The film was released on 3 August 1994, and it was both a critical and box office success. In 1994, the film received the Asia Pacific Film Festival Award for Best Film, and in 1995 it received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
