Academy Awards for Foreign Language Film

Oscar® winning Foreign Language Films
updated august, 2011

The Russian War and Peace (1968), directed

by Sergei Bondarchuk was the most expensive

movie made at that point, costing 100 million

and using 250,000 extras for battle scenes

Followed by country and director

1947: Shoeshine (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1948: Monsieur Vincent (France) Maurice Cloche
1949: The Bicycle Thief (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1950: The Walls of Malapaga (France/Italy) Rene Clement
1951: Rashomon (Japan) Akira Kurosawa
1952: Forbidden Games (France) Rene Clement
1953: No Award
1954: Gate of Hell (Japan) Teinosuke Kinugasa
1955: Samurai 1:Musashi Miyamoto (Japan) Hiroshi Inagaki
1956: La Strada (Italy) Federico Fellini
1957: Nights of Cabiria (Italy) Federico Fellini
1958: Mon Uncle (France) Jacques Tati
1959: Black Orpheus (France) Marcel Camus
1960: The Virgin Spring (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1961: Through a Glass Darkly (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1962: Sundays and Cybele (France) Serge Bourguignon
1963: 8 ½ (Italy) Federico Fellini
1964: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1965: The Shop on Main St (Czechoslovakia) Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
1966: A Man and a Woman (France) Claude Lelouch
1967: Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia) Jiri Menzel
1968: War and Peace (Russia) Sergei Bondarchuk
1969: Z (Algeria) Constantin Costa-Gavras
1970: Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion (Italy) Elio Petri
1971: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1972: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France) Luis Buñuel
1973: Day for Night (France) Francois Truffaut
1974: Amarcord (Italy) Federico Fellini
1975: Dersu Uzala (Soviet Union/Japan) Akira Kurosawa
1976: Black and White in Color (Ivory Coast) Jean-Jacques Annaud
1977: Madame Rosa (France) Moshe Mizrahi
1978: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France) Bertrand Blier
1979: Tin Drum (West Germany) Volker Schlondorff
1980: Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (Soviet Union Vladimir Menshov
1981: Mephisto (Hungary) Istvan Szabo
1982: To Begin Again (Spain) Jose Luis Garci
1983: Fanny and Alexander (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1984: Dangerous Moves (Switzerland) Richard Dembo
1985: The Official Story (Argentina) Luis Puenzo
1986: The Assault (The Netherlands) Fons Rademakers
1987: Babette’s Feast (Denmark) Gabriel Axel
1988: Pelle the Conquerer (Denmark) Bille August
1989: Cinema Paradiso (Italy) Giuseppe Tornatore
1990: Journey of Hope (Switzerland) Xavier Koller
1991: Mediterraneo (Italy) Gabriele Salvatores
1992: Indochine (France) Regis Wargnier
1993: Belle Epoque (Spain) Fernando Trueba
1994: Burnt by the Sun (Russia) Nikita Mikhalkov
1995: Antonia’s Line (The Netherlands) Marleen Gorris
1996: Kolya (Czech Republic) Jan Sverak
1997: Character (The Netherlands) Mike Van Diem
1998: Life is Beautiful (Italy) Roberto Benigni
1999: All About My Mother (Spain) Pedro Almodovar
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China/Hong Kong/Taiwan/USA) Ang Lee
2001: No Man’s Land (Belgium) Danis Tanovic
2002: Nowhere in Africa (Germany) Caroline Link
2003: The Barbarian Invasions (Canada/France) Denys Arcand
2004: The Sea Inside (Spain) Alejandro Amenabar
2005: Tsotsi (South Africa) Gavin Hood
2006: The Lives of Others (Germany) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
2007: The Counterfeiters (Austria) Stefan Ruzowitzky
2008: Departures (Japan) Yôjirô Takita
2009: The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina) Juan José Campanella
2010: In a Better World (Denmark) Susanne Bier

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Wins by Country (62 presented, 3 by double countries)
France 13
Italy 13
Japan 5
Germany, Russia, Spain  - all 4 each
Denmark, Czechoslovakia, The Netherlands, Sweden, all 3 each
Switzerland 2

Other Winners: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Canada, China/Hong Kong, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, So. Africa

Top Tens
My top 10 Foreign Language winners (of those I’ve seen, about 2/3)
1. Cinema Paradiso (1989)
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
3. Departures (2008)* (new - an amazing film)
4. The Lives of Others (2006)
5. Kolya (1996)
6. Nowhere in Africa (2002)
7. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
8. Mephisto (1981)
9. Black Orpheus (1959)
10. War and Peace (1968)
11. The Shop on Main Street (1965)
12. Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)

Note: My favorite foreign film is Zhang Yimou’s Hero, which lost the Oscar in 2002 (to Nowhere in Africa), and is the highest-grossing film in Chinese history.

Where are Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, Peterson's Das Boot, Trojan's Zelary and Meirelles' City of God (Brazil, FIVE Oscar nominations: Foreign Film, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Adapted Screenplay; Time Top-100 Alltime!)? Each is better than most of these winners.