List of submissions to the 70th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

This is a list of submissions to the 70th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States. ^[1] The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. ^[2] Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country. ^[2]

For the 70th Academy Awards, forty-four films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The submission deadline was set on November 1, 1997. ^[3] The highlighted titles were the five nominated films, which came from Brazil, Germany, Russia and Spain, and the eventual winner, Character , from the Netherlands. ^[4] The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luxembourg and Ukraine submitted a film for the first time. South Africa sent its first film since the end of apartheid.

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Original title	Language(s)	Director(s)	Result
Argentina	Ashes of Paradise	Cenizas del paraíso	Spanish	Marcelo Piñeyro	Not nominated
Austria	The Unfish	Der Unfisch	German	Robert Dornhelm	Not nominated
Belgium	My Life in Pink	Ma Vie en Rose	French	Alain Berliner	Not nominated
Brazil	Four Days in September	O que é isso, companheiro?	Portuguese	Bruno Barreto	Nominated
Canada	Cosmos	Cosmos	French	Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin & Denis Villeneuve	Not nominated
Colombia	The Debt	La deuda	Spanish	Manuel José Álvarez & Nicolás Buenaventura	Not nominated
Croatia	Lapitch the Little Shoemaker	Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića	Croatian, English, German	Milan Blažeković	Not nominated
Cuba	Vertical Love	Amor vertical	Spanish	Arturo Sotto Díaz	Not nominated
Czech Republic	A Forgotten Light	Zapomenuté světlo	Czech	Vladimír Michálek	Not nominated
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Macadam Tribu	Macadam Tribu	French	Zeka Laplaine	Not nominated
Denmark	Barbara	Barbara	Danish	Nils Malmros	Not nominated
Egypt	Destiny	المصير (Al-maṣīr)	Egyptian Arabic, French, Spanish	Youssef Chahine	Not nominated
Finland	The Collector	Neitoperho	Finnish	Auli Mantila	Not nominated
France	Western	Western	French	Manuel Poirier	Not nominated
Germany	Beyond Silence	Jenseits der Stille	German, German Sign Language	Caroline Link	Nominated
Greece	Slaughter of the Cock	Η Σφαγή του Κόκορα (I sfagi tou kokora)	Greek	Andreas Pantzis	Not nominated
Hungary	The Witman Boys	Witman fiúk	Hungarian	János Szász	Not nominated
India	Guru	ഗുരു (Guru)	Malayalam	Rajeev Anchal	Not nominated
Iceland	Blossi/810551	Blossi/810551	Icelandic	Júlíus Kemp	Not nominated
Iran	Gabbeh	گبه (Gabbeh)	Persian	Mohsen Makhmalbaf	Not nominated
Israel	Pick a Card	עפולה אקספרס (Afula Express)	Hebrew	Julie Shles	Not nominated
Italy	The Best Man	Il testimone dello sposo	Italian	Pupi Avati	Not nominated
Japan	Princess Mononoke	もののけ姫 (Mononoke-hime)	Japanese	Hayao Miyazaki	Not nominated
Luxembourg	Women	Elles	French	Luís Galvão Teles	Not nominated
Macedonia	Gypsy Magic	Џипси меџик (Džipsi medžik)	Macedonian	Stole Popov	Not nominated
Mexico	Deep Crimson	Profundo Carmesí	Spanish	Arturo Ripstein	Not nominated
Netherlands	Character	Karakter	Dutch	Mike van Diem	Won Academy Award
Norway	Junk Mail	Budbringeren	Norwegian	Pål Sletaune	Not nominated
Philippines	Milagros	Milagros	Tagalog, Filipino	Marilou Diaz-Abaya	Not nominated
Poland	Love Stories	Historie Miłosne	Polish	Jerzy Stuhr	Not nominated
Portugal	Journey to the Beginning of the World	Voyage au début du monde, Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo	French, Portuguese	Manoel de Oliveira	Not nominated
Russia	The Thief	Вор (Vor)	Russian	Pavel Chukhray	Nominated
Slovakia	Orbis Pictus	Orbis Pictus	Slovak	Martin Šulík	Not nominated
Slovenia	Outsider	Avtsajder	Slovene	Andrej Košak	Not nominated
South Africa	Paljas	Paljas	Afrikaans	Katinka Heyns	Not nominated
Spain	Secrets of the Heart	Secretos del corazón	Spanish	Montxo Armendáriz	Nominated
Sweden	Tic Tac	Tic Tac	Swedish	Daniel Alfredson	Not nominated
Switzerland	For Ever Mozart	For Ever Mozart	French	Jean-Luc Godard	Not nominated
Taiwan	Yours and Mine	我的神经病 (Wo de shen jing bing)	Mandarin	Shaudi Wang	Not nominated
Thailand	Daughter 2	เสียดาย 2 (Sia dai 2)	Thai	Chatrichalerm Yukol	Not nominated
Turkey	The Bandit	Eşkıya	Turkish	Yavuz Turgul	Not nominated
Ukraine	A Friend of the Deceased	Приятель покойника, Приятель небіжчика	Russian, Ukrainian	Vyacheslav Krishtofovich	Not nominated
Venezuela	One Life and Two Trails	Una vida y dos mandados	Spanish	Alberto Arvelo	Not nominated
FR Yugoslavia	Three Summer Days	Три летња дана (Tri letnja dana)	Serbian	Mirjana Vukomanović	Not nominated

References

1. "History of the Academy Awards 2 - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". web.archive.org. 22 June 2008. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
2. "Rule 14 | 81st Academy Awards Rules | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". web.archive.org. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
3. "44 Countries Hoping for Oscar Nominations". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 24 November 1997. Archived from the original on 13 February 1998. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
4. "The 70th Academy Awards (1998) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 13 October 2015.