This is a list of submissions to the 50th 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 50th Academy Awards, twenty-four films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Iran, Morocco and Venezuela entered the competition for the first time. The highlighted titles were the five nominated films. These films came from France, Greece, Israel, Italy and Spain. France won the award for Madame Rosa,^[3] a drama by an Israeli director about Madame Rosa, a retired prostitute and Holocaust survivor in Paris.^[4]

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Original title	Language(s)	Director(s)	Result
Argentina	What Does Fall Mean?	¿Qué es el otoño?	Spanish	Daniel Portela and David José Kohon	Not nominated
Austria	I Want to Live	Ich will leben	German	Jörg A. Eggers	Not nominated
Belgium	Rubens	Rubens, schilder en diplomaat	Dutch	Roland Verhavert	Not nominated
Brazil	Tent of Miracles	Tenda dos Milagres	Brazilian Portuguese	Nelson Pereira dos Santos	Not nominated
Canada	J.A. Martin Photographer	J.A. Martin photographe	French	Jean Beaudin	Not nominated
Denmark	Boys	Drenge	Danish	Nils Malmros	Not nominated
France	Madame Rosa	La Vie devant soi	French	Moshé Mizrahi	Won Academy Award
East Germany	Mom, I Am Alive	Mama, ich lebe	German	Konrad Wolf	Not nominated
West Germany	The American Friend	Der Amerikanische Freund	German, English, French	Wim Wenders	Not nominated
Greece	Iphigenia	Ἰφιγένεια	Greek	Michael Cacoyannis	Nominated
Hungary	A Strange Role	Herkulesfürdöi emlék	Hungarian	Pál Sándor	Not nominated
India	Manthan	मंथन	Hindi	Shyam Benegal	Not nominated
Iran	The Cycle	دايره مينا	Persian	Dariush Mehrjui	Not nominated
Israel	Operation Thunderbolt[5]	מבצע יונתן	Hebrew, English, Arabic, German, French, Spanish	Menahem Golan	Nominated
Italy	A Special Day	Una giornata particolare	Italian	Ettore Scola	Nominated
Japan	Mt. Hakkoda	八甲田山	Japanese	Shiro Moritani	Not nominated
Mexico	Pafnucio Santo		Spanish	Rafael Corkidi	Not nominated
Morocco	Blood Wedding	Noces de sang	French	Souheil Ben-Barka	Not nominated
Netherlands	Soldier of Orange	Soldaat van Oranje	Dutch, English, German	Paul Verhoeven	Not nominated
Poland	Camouflage	Barwy ochronne	Polish	Krzysztof Zanussi	Not nominated
Soviet Union	The Ascent	Восхождение	Russian	Larisa Shepitko	Not nominated
Spain	That Obscure Object of Desire	Cet obscur objet du désir, Ese oscuro objeto del deseo	French, Spanish	Luis Buñuel	Nominated
Sweden	The Man on the Roof	Mannen på taket	Swedish	Bo Widerberg	Not nominated
Venezuela	The Fish That Smokes	El pez que fuma	Spanish	Román Chalbaud	Not nominated