List of submissions to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

2005 Best Foreign Language Film submissions
Highlights
Oscar winner	Tsotsi
Total submissions	63
First-time submissions	3
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This is a list of submissions to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. 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 every year since the award was created in 1956. The award is handed out annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.

For the 78th Academy Awards, sixty-two countries submitted films to the Academy, and fifty-eight of those films were accepted for review by the Academy. ^[1] The submissions of Austria and Greece were rejected before the formal review process and the submissions of Uruguay and Venezuela did not appear in the final list; meanwhile, those from Bolivia, Netherlands, Singapore and Tajikistan were later disqualified by the Academy. Costa Rica, Iraq and Fiji submitted films for the first time. The winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was South Africa's Tsotsi , which was directed by Gavin Hood.

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Original title	Language(s)	Director(s)	Result
Argentina	El Aura		Spanish	Fabián Bielinsky	Not nominated
Austria	Caché		French	Michael Haneke	Disqualified
Bangladesh	Shyamol Chhaya	শ্যামল ছায়া	Bengali	Humayun Ahmed	Not nominated
Belgium	The Child	L'Enfant	French	Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne	Not nominated
Bolivia	Say Good Morning to Dad	Di buen día a papá	Spanish	Fernando Vargas	Disqualified
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Totally Personal	Sasvim lično	Serbian, English, Bosnian	Nedžad Begović	Not nominated
Brazil	Two Sons of Francisco	Dois Filhos de Francisco	Brazilian Portuguese	Breno Silveira	Not nominated
Bulgaria	Stolen Eyes	Откраднати очи	Bulgarian, Turkish	Radoslav Spassov	Not nominated
Canada	C.R.A.Z.Y.		French	Jean-Marc Vallée	Not nominated
Chile	Play		Spanish	Alicia Scherson	Not nominated
China	The Promise	无极	Mandarin	Chen Kaige	Not nominated
Colombia	La Sombra del Caminante		Spanish	Ciro Guerra	Not nominated
Costa Rica	Caribe			Esteban Ramírez	Not nominated
Croatia	A Wonderful Night in Split	Ta divna splitska noć	Croatian, Serbian, English	Arsen Anton Ostojić	Not nominated
Cuba	Viva Cuba		Spanish	Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti	Not nominated
Czech Republic	Something Like Happiness	Štěstí	Czech	Bohdan Sláma	Not nominated
Denmark	Adam's Apples	Adams Æbler	Danish	Anders Thomas Jensen	Not nominated
Estonia	Shop of Dreams	Stiilipidu	Estonian	Peeter Urbla	Not nominated
Fiji	The Land Has Eyes	Pear ta ma ʻon maf	Rotuman, English	Vilsoni Hereniko	Not nominated
Finland	Mother of Mine	Äideistä parhain / Den bästa av mödrar	Finnish, Swedish	Klaus Härö	Not nominated
France	Joyeux Noël		French, German, English	Christian Carion	Nominated
Georgia	Tbilisi-Tbilisi	თბილისი-თბილისი	Georgian	Levan Zakareishvili	Not nominated
Germany	Sophie Scholl – The Final Days	Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage	German	Marc Rothemund	Nominated
Greece	Brides [2]	Νύφες	Greek, English	Pantelis Voulgaris	Disqualified
Hong Kong	Perhaps Love	如果·愛	Cantonese, Mandarin	Peter Ho-Sun Chan	Not nominated
Hungary	Fateless	Sorstalanság	Hungarian, German, English	Lajos Koltai	Not nominated
Iceland	Ahead of Time	Í takt við tímann	Icelandic	Ágúst Guðmundsson	Not nominated
India	Paheli	पहेली	Hindi	Amol Palekar	Not nominated
Indonesia	Gie		Indonesian	Riri Riza	Not nominated
Iran	So Close, So Far	خیلی دور، خیلی نزدیک	Persian	Reza Mir Karimi	Not nominated
Iraq	Requiem of Snow	شیوەنی بەفر	Kurdish	Jamil Rostami	Not nominated
Israel	What a Wonderful Place	איזה מקום נפלא	Hebrew, Russian, Filipino, Tagalog, English	Eyal Halfon	Not nominated
Italy	Don't Tell	La bestia nel cuore	Italian, English	Cristina Comencini	Nominated
Japan	Blood and Bones	血と骨	Japanese, Korean	Yoichi Sai	Not nominated
South Korea	Welcome to Dongmakgol	웰컴 투 동막골	Korean	Park Kwang-hyun	Not nominated
Luxembourg	Renart the Fox	Le Roman de Renart	French	Thierry Schiel	Not nominated
Mexico	Al otro lado		Spanish, Arabic	Gustavo Loza	Not nominated
Mongolia	The Cave of the Yellow Dog	Шар нохойн там	Mongolian	Byambasuren Davaa	Not nominated
Netherlands	Bluebird		Dutch	Mijke de Jong	Disqualified
Norway	Kissed by Winter	Vinterkyss	Norwegian, Swedish, English	Sara Johnsen	Not nominated
Palestine	Paradise Now	الجنّة الآن	Palestinian Arabic, English	Hany Abu-Assad	Nominated
Peru	Days of Santiago	Días de Santiago	Spanish	Josué Méndez	Not nominated
Poland	The Collector	Komornik	Polish	Feliks Falk	Not nominated
Portugal	Noite Escura		Portuguese, Russian	João Canijo	Not nominated
Puerto Rico	Cayo		Spanish	Vicente Juarbe	Not nominated
Romania	The Death of Mr. Lazarescu	Moartea domnului Lăzărescu	Romanian	Cristi Puiu	Not nominated
Russia	The Italian	Итальянец	Russian, Italian, English	Andrei Kravchuk	Not nominated
Serbia and Montenegro	Midwinter Night's Dream	Сан зимске ноћи	Serbian	Goran Paskaljević	Not nominated
Singapore	Be with Me		English, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese	Eric Khoo	Disqualified
Slovakia	The City of the Sun	Slnečný štát	Slovak, Czech	Martin Šulík	Not nominated
Slovenia	Ruins	Ruševine	Slovene	Janez Burger	Not nominated
South Africa	Tsotsi		Setswana, Zulu, Sesotho, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English	Gavin Hood	Won Academy Award
Spain	Obaba		Spanish	Montxo Armendáriz	Not nominated
Sweden	Zozo		Swedish, Arabic	Josef Fares	Not nominated
Switzerland	Tout un Hiver sans Feu		French, Albanian	Greg Zglinski	Not nominated
Taiwan	The Wayward Cloud	天邊一朵雲	Mandarin	Tsai Ming-liang	Not nominated
Tajikistan	Sex & Philosophy	Ҷинс ва фалсафа	Russian, Tajik	Mohsen Makhmalbaf	Disqualified
Thailand	The Tin Mine	มหา’ลัย เหมืองแร่	Thai	Jira Maligool	Not nominated
Turkey	Lovelorn	Gönül Yarası	Turkish	Yavuz Turgul	Not nominated
Uruguay	Alma Mater		Spanish	Álvaro Buela	Not on the final list
Venezuela	1888: The Extraordinary Voyage of the Santa Isabel	1888: El Extraordinario Viaje de la Santa Isabel		Alfredo Anzola	Disqualified
Vietnam	The Buffalo Boy	Mùa len trâu	Vietnamese	Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh	Not nominated

Notes

• Austria's submission, Caché , was disqualified because the film was completely in French, and not in a language indigenous to Austria.
• Bolivia's submission, Say Good Morning to Dad , was disqualified because a print of the film did not arrive at the Academy in time.
• Private was originally selected but the Academy informed Italy that the film would be disqualified for not being in Italian. The Italian Academy appealed the decision, but ended up selecting a new film
• Nepal elected to send Basain , but due to its release date, it was submitted the following year instead.
• The submission of the Netherlands, Bluebird , disqualified because it was too similar to a version previously aired on Dutch television; it was too late to select another Dutch film.
• Paradise Now was submitted as coming from "Palestine", which was used on the web page and the official notices of the Academy. It was announced at the awards ceremony as from "the Palestinian Territories".
• The Philippines failed to send a film for the first time in ten years; their Film Academy claimed they thought they hadn't been invited after the official invitation failed to reach their new address.
• Singapore's submission, Be with Me, was disqualified after its official screening for being mostly in English and not in a Foreign Language
• Tajikistan's submission, Sex & Philosophy , was disqualified because a print of the film did not arrive at the Academy in time
• Uruguay reportedly selected Álvaro Buela's Alma Mater, but it only ended up sent to the Goya Awards.
• Venezuela selected 1888: The Extraordinary Voyage of the Santa Isabel, but their entry was delayed by a lawsuit and they missed the deadline ^[3]
• Among the other countries which were officially invited to submit a film, but did not, were Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Ecuador, Egypt, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

References

1. "58 Countries Vying for 2005 Foreign Language Film Oscar" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 25 October 2005. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
2. "With National Pride at Stake, Foreign Language Films Compete for Oscar Glory". 16 November 2005.
3. "Secuestro Express director sued in Venezuela | Business News". vcrisis.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2005.