German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for The Lives of Others.

This is a list of submissions to the 79th 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.[1] 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.[1][2] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.[2]

For the 79th Academy Awards, which were held on February 25, 2007, the Academy invited 83 countries to submit films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, including Lithuania, which was invited to submit a film for the first time in the history of the Academy.[3][4] Sixty-three countries submitted films to the Academy and sixty-one of those films were accepted for review by the Academy, a record number for the time.[5] The submissions of Finland and Luxembourg were rejected before the formal review process.[6][7]

Two rule changes were made for the 79th Academy Awards in regard to the Best Foreign Language Film process.[8] The first was instituting a two-step process in choosing the nominees for the award in order to allow New York–based members of the Academy to participate.[9] An initial committee would select nine films to form a shortlist in January that would then be reviewed by a committee composed of ten members of the initial committee, ten Los Angeles–based members, and ten New York–based members that would select the final five nominees.[10] The second change was the removal of a rule requiring that the films be in an official language of the submitting country.[11] This was done in response to the rejection of Italy's and Austria's submissions for the 78th Academy Awards, Private and Caché respectively, because they were not filmed in the official language of their respective countries.[10][12] This allowed for the acceptance of submissions such as Canada's Water, which contained solely Hindi dialogue.[12] Following the revealing of the shortlist, the Academy released a list of the five nominees on January 23, 2007.[13] The winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Germany's The Lives of Others, which was directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.[14]

Submissions

Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result
 Algeria Days of Glory بلديون / Indigènes Arabic, French Rachid Bouchareb Nominated
 Argentina Family Law Derecho de familia Spanish Daniel Burman Not nominated
 Australia Ten Canoes Yolngu Matha, English Rolf de Heer Not nominated
 Austria You Bet Your Life Spiele Leben German Antonin Svoboda Not nominated
 Bangladesh Forever Flows নিরন্তর Bengali Abu Sayeed Not nominated
 Belgium Someone Else's Happiness Een ander zijn geluk Dutch Fien Troch Not nominated
 Bolivia American Visa Spanish Juan Carlos Valdivia Not nominated
 Bosnia and Herzegovina Grbavica: Land of My Dreams Grbavica Bosnian Jasmila Žbanić Not nominated
 Brazil Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus German, Brazilian Portuguese Marcelo Gomes Not nominated
 Bulgaria Monkeys in Winter Maimuni prez zimata Bulgarian Milena Andonova Not nominated
 Canada Water Hindi, English Deepa Mehta Nominated
 Chile In Bed En la cama Spanish Matías Bize Not nominated
 China Curse of the Golden Flower 满城尽带黄金甲 Mandarin Zhang Yimou Not nominated
 Colombia A Ton of Luck Soñar no cuesta nada Spanish Rodrigo Triana Not nominated
 Croatia Libertas Croatian, Italian, Venetian Veljko Bulajić Not nominated
 Cuba El Benny Spanish Jorge Luis Sánchez Not nominated
 Czech Republic Lunacy Šílení Czech Jan Švankmajer Not nominated
 Denmark After the Wedding Efter brylluppet Danish, Hindi, Swedish, English Susanne Bier Nominated
 Egypt The Yacoubian Building عمارة يعقوبيان Arabic Marwan Hamed Not nominated
 Finland Lights in the Dusk Laitakaupungin valot Finnish, Russian Aki Kaurismäki Withdrawn[A]
 France Avenue Montaigne Fauteuils d'orchestre French Danièle Thompson Made shortlist
 Germany The Lives of Others Das Leben der Anderen German Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Won Academy Award
 Greece Chariton's Choir Η χορωδία του Χαρίτωνα Greek Grigoris Karantinakis Not nominated
 Hong Kong The Banquet 夜宴 Mandarin Xiaogang Feng Not nominated
 Hungary White Palms Fehér Tenyér Hungarian, Russian Szabolcs Hajdu Not nominated
 Iceland Children Börn Icelandic Ragnar Bragason Not nominated
 India Rang De Basanti रंग दे बसंती Hindi Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Not nominated
 Indonesia Love for Share Berbagi suami Indonesian Nia di Nata Not nominated
 Iran Transit Café Café Transit Persian, Greek, Turkish, Russian Kambuzia Partovi Not nominated
 Iraq Dreams أحلام Arabic Mohamed Al-Daradji Not nominated
 Israel Sweet Mud אדמה משוגעת Hebrew, French Dror Shaul Not nominated
 Italy The Golden Door Nuovomondo Italian Emanuele Crialese Not nominated
 Japan Hula Girls フラガール Japanese Lee Sang-il Not nominated
 Kazakhstan Nomad Kôshpendiler Russian, Kazakh Sergei Bodrov, Talgat Temenov, Ivan Passer Not nominated
 Kyrgyzstan The Wedding Chest Сундук предков French, Kyrgyz, Russian Nurbek Egen Not nominated
 Lebanon Bosta بوسطة Arabic Philippe Aractingi Not nominated
 Lithuania Before Flying Back to the Earth Prieš parskrendant į žemę Lithuanian, Russian Arūnas Matelis Not nominated
 Luxembourg Your Name is Justine Masz na imie Justine German, Polish, English Franco de Peña Disqualified[B]
 Macedonia Kontakt German, Macedonian Sergej Stanojkovski Not nominated
 Mexico Pan's Labyrinth El laberinto del fauno Spanish Guillermo del Toro Nominated
 Morocco The Moroccan Symphony السمفونية المغربية Arabic Kamal Kamal Not nominated
   Nepal Basain Nepali Subash Gajurel Not nominated
 Netherlands Black Book Zwartboek Dutch, Hebrew, English, German Paul Verhoeven Made shortlist
 Norway Reprise Norwegian Joachim Trier Not nominated
 Peru Madeinusa Spanish, Quechua Claudia Llosa Not nominated
 Philippines The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros Filipino, Tagalog Auraeus Solito Not nominated
 Poland Retrieval Z odzysku Polish, Russian Slawomir Fabicki Not nominated
 Portugal Alice Portuguese Marco Martins Not nominated
 Puerto Rico Thieves and Liars Ladrones y mentirosos Spanish Ricardo Méndez Matta Not nominated
 Romania The Way I Spent the End of the World Cum mi-am petrecut sfârșitul lumii Romanian Catalin Mitulescu Not nominated
 Russia 9th Company 9 рота Russian Fyodor Bondarchuk Not nominated
 Serbia Tomorrow Morning Sutra ujutro Serbian Oleg Novkovic Not nominated
 Slovenia Gravehopping Odgrobadogroba Slovene Jan Cvitkovič Not nominated
 South Korea King and the Clown 왕의 남자 Korean Lee Jun-ik Not nominated
 Spain Volver Spanish Pedro Almodóvar Made shortlist
 Sweden Falkenberg Farewell Farväl Falkenberg Swedish Jesper Ganslandt Not nominated
  Switzerland Vitus Swiss German, English Fredi Murer Made shortlist
 Taiwan Blue Cha Cha 深海 Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien Chen Wen-Tang Not nominated
 Thailand Ahimsa: Stop to Run อหิงสา จิ๊กโก๋ มีกรรม Thai Kittikorn Liasirikun Not nominated
 Turkey Ice Cream, I Scream Dondurmam Gaymak Turkish Yüksel Aksu Not nominated
 Ukraine Aurora Аврора Russian, Ukrainian, English Oxana Bayrak Not nominated
 Venezuela Maroa Spanish Solveig Hoogesteijn Not nominated
 Vietnam Story of Pao Chuyện của Pao Vietnamese Quang Hai Ngo Not nominated

Notes

References

General
  • "61 Countries Seeking Foreign Language Film Oscar". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2006-10-19. Archived from the original on 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
Specific
  1. ^ a b "History of the Academy Awards - Page 2". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  2. ^ a b "Special Rules for the Best Foreign Language Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2008-03-14. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  3. ^ "83 Countries Invited to Submit Foreign Language Films for 2006 Oscar". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2008-04-26. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  4. ^ "83 countries compete for foreign language Oscar". The Guardian. 2006-07-12. Archived from the original on 2013-04-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  5. ^ Sneider, Jeff (2006-10-19). "Oscar race counts 61 countries". Variety. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  6. ^ a b Selkokari, Antti (2006-10-18). "Kaurismaki turns off 'Lights' on Oscar bid". Variety. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  7. ^ a b Goodfellow, Melanie (2006-11-08). "Lux out of 'Name' game". Variety. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  8. ^ "79th Oscar Rules Approved by Academy". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2006-06-30. Archived from the original on 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  9. ^ "Rules Change for Foreign-Language Oscar". Fox News. 2006-07-02. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  10. ^ a b "Rules Change for Foreign-Language Oscar". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-07-01. Archived from the original on 2020-04-04. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  11. ^ Welkos, Robert (2006-07-03). "Foreign film rules altered". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  12. ^ a b Pais, Arthur (2006-09-22). "Water is Canada's Oscar entry". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  13. ^ "Nominations Announcement – The 79th Annual Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2007-01-23. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  14. ^ Paris, Barry (2007-03-01). "'The Lives of Others'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-06-24.

External links

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film submissions
Academy Awards
Category