This is a list of submissions to the 29th 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 (AMPAS) to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States.^[1] That year, AMPAS asked individual countries to submit their best films of the year for the inaugural Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In previous years, the Foreign Language Oscar was not a regular award, and there were no nominees – a winner was simply announced at the Oscar ceremony. The award has since been 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 29th Academy Awards, eight films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and five of these were selected as Oscar nominees. The inaugural winner, Italy's La Strada, was announced at the Oscar ceremony, which took place on March 27, 1957.^[3]

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Original title	Language(s)	Director(s)	Result
Denmark	Qivitoq	Qivitoq - Fjeldgængeren	Danish, Greenlandic	Erik Balling	Nominated
France	Gervaise		French	René Clément	Nominated
West Germany	The Captain of Köpenick	Der Hauptmann von Köpenick	German	Helmut Käutner	Nominated
Italy	La Strada		Italian	Federico Fellini	Won Academy Award
Japan	The Burmese Harp	ビルマの竪琴	Japanese, English, Burmese	Kon Ichikawa	Nominated
Philippines	Child of Sorrow	Anak dalita	Tagalog, Filipino, English	Lamberto V. Avellana	Not nominated
Spain	Afternoon of the Bulls	Tarde de toros	Spanish	Ladislao Vajda	Not nominated
Sweden	The Staffan Stolle Story	Ratataa	Swedish	Hasse Ekman	Not nominated