Lithuania has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film[nb 1] since 2006 . 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.[3] 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.[4]

Submissions

Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Lithuania for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.

Year
(Ceremony)		 Film title used in nomination Original title Director Result
2006
(79th) 		Before Flying Back to Earth Prieš parskrendant į žemę Arūnas Matelis Not nominated
2008
(81st) 		Loss Nereikalingi žmonės Māris Martinsons (director) Not nominated
2009
(82nd) 		Vortex Duburys Gytis Lukšas Not nominated
2011
(84th) 		Back to Your Arms[5] Kai apkabinsiu tave Kristijonas Vildžiūnas Not nominated
2012
(85th) 		Ramin[6] Audrius Stonys Not nominated
2013
(86th) 		Conversations on Serious Topics[7] Pokalbiai rimtomis temomis Giedrė Beinoriūtė Not nominated
2014
(87th) 		The Gambler[8] Lošėjas Ignas Jonynas Not nominated
2015
(88th) 		The Summer of Sangailė[9] Sangailės vasara Alantė Kavaitė Not nominated
2016
(89th) 		Seneca's Day[10] Senekos diena Kristijonas Vildziunas Not nominated
2017
(90th) 		Frost[11] Šerkšnas Šarūnas Bartas Not nominated
2018
(90th) 		Wonderful Losers: A Different World[12] Nuostabieji Luzeriai. Kita planeta Arūnas Matelis Not nominated
2019
(92nd) 		Bridges of Time[13] Laiko tiltai Kristine Briede, Audrius Stonys Not nominated
2020
(93rd) 		Nova Lituania[14] Karolis Kaupinis Not nominated
2021
(94th) 		Isaac[15] Izaokas Jurgis Matulevičius Not nominated
2022
(95th) 		Pilgrims Piligrimai Laurynas Bareiša Not nominated
2023
(96th) 		Slow[16] Tu man nieko neprimeni Marija Kavtaradzė Not nominated

Though they have been invited to submit a film by AMPAS regularly since achieving independence in the early 1990s, Lithuania has only submitted films for Oscar consideration since 2006. In fall of that year, it was announced that they had submitted documentary short "Before Flying Back to Earth" in 2006. With a 52-minute running time, it is one of the few documentaries and few non-feature-length films ever to be submitted in the category. Before Flying Back to Earth follows the lives of a number of young cancer patients receiving treatment at Vilnius University Children's Hospital. Director Arūnas Matelis' own daughter had been a patient at this hospital several years before. The film won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary award from the Directors Guild of America in 2007 and was featured at a number of international film festivals from 2005 to 2007, but failed to be nominated for an Oscar.

Two years later, they returned to the competition with Loss, a drama set in Lithuania and Ireland, focused on the theory of six degrees of separation. Having won two awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival, it was the first Lithuanian to feature at a Class A film festival.[17] In 2009, they selected Vortex, a drama about a man's life spanning several decades before and after Lithuania's Soviet occupation.

Notes

  1. ^ The category was previously named the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in April 2019, after the Academy deemed the word "Foreign" to be outdated.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ "Academy announces rules for 92nd Oscars". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Academy Announces Rule Changes For 92nd Oscars". Forbes. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Rule Thirteen: Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  4. ^ "History of the Academy Awards - Page 2". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  5. ^ "63 Countries Vie for 2011 Foreign Language Film Oscar". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  6. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (2 October 2012). "Lithuania selects 'Ramin' for Oscar bout". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  7. ^ "Oscars: Lithuania Nominates 'Conversations on Serious Topics' for Foreign Language Category". Hollywood Reporter. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  8. ^ "'The Gambler' by Ignas Jonynas – Lithuania's candidate for Best Foreign Language Academy Award". Lithuanian film center. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  9. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (11 September 2015). "Oscars: Lithuania Nominates 'The Summer of Sangaile' for Foreign Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  10. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (13 September 2016). "Oscars: Lithuania Selects 'Seneca's Day' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  11. ^ Kozlov, Vladimir (9 September 2017). "Oscars: Lithuania Selects 'Frost' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  12. ^ "Lithuania picks Matelis' Wonderful Losers for Oscar entry". The Baltic Course. 23 August 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  13. ^ Kozlov, Vladimir (13 September 2019). "Oscars: Lithuania Selects 'Bridges of Time' for International Feature Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  14. ^ "Lithuania picks Nova Lituania for foreign-language Oscar nomination". LRT. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Lithuania picks Holocaust film as its second entry to vie for Oscars". LRT. 10 November 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  16. ^ "Lietuvos pretendentas siekti „Oskaro" – filmas „Tu man nieko neprimeni"". Lietuvos kino centras. 7 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  17. ^ Cockrell, Eddie (17 September 2008). "Loss". Variety.
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