Academy Award for Best International Feature Film facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best International Feature Film |
|
|---|---|
The 2025 recipient: Walter Salles
|
|
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| Country | United States |
| First awarded | Shoeshine (1947) |
| Currently held by | I'm Still Here (2024) |
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film is a special prize given out every year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States. Before 2020, it was called the Best Foreign Language Film award. This award celebrates the best full-length movies made outside the U.S. that are mostly spoken in a language other than English.
When the first Academy Awards happened in 1929, there wasn't a separate award for movies from other countries. Most films back then were silent, so language wasn't a big issue. From 1947 to 1955, the Academy gave out special "Honorary Awards" to excellent foreign films. These weren't competitive, meaning there was only one winner each year, not a list of nominees.
In 1956, the Academy created a proper competitive award called the Best Foreign Language Film Award. It has been given out every year since then. Unlike most other Oscars, this award is seen as a prize for the entire country that submitted the film, and for all the creative people who made it. For a long time, even the director's name wasn't put on the Oscar statue! But in 2014, the Academy changed this, and now the director's name is engraved on the award.
Most of these awards have gone to films from Europe. Out of 77 awards given since 1947, 60 have gone to European movies. Asian films have won nine times, films from the Americas five times, and African films three times. An Italian filmmaker named Federico Fellini directed four movies that won this award, which is a record!
Italy has won the most awards, with 14 wins. France has the most nominations, with 41. Israel has been nominated 10 times but hasn't won yet. In 2020, a South Korean movie called Parasite made history. It was the first International Feature Film to also win the top prize, Best Picture, showing that a non-English film could be the best overall.
Contents
How the Award Started
When the first Oscars were held in 1929, no foreign-language films were honored. After World War II, from 1947 to 1955, some foreign films received special "Honorary Awards." A leader at the Academy, Jean Hersholt, believed that an international award would help American filmmakers connect with those from other countries.
The first foreign film to get such an award was an Italian movie called Shoeshine. The Academy praised its high quality, saying it showed how creativity can shine even in a country recovering from war. Other films from Italy, France, and Japan also received these special awards during this time. However, these awards weren't given out every year, and there were no other nominees, just one winner.
A proper, competitive category for non-English films was finally created in 1956. It was called the Best Foreign Language Film Award. The first movie to win this new award was another Italian film, La Strada, directed by Federico Fellini. This helped him become a very important director in Europe.
In 2019, the Academy decided to change the name of the category to Best International Feature Film. They felt the word "Foreign" sounded old-fashioned. The new name, "International," better represents the category and celebrates filmmaking as a worldwide experience. Now, animated and documentary films can also compete in this category, as long as they meet the other rules.
Who Can Be Nominated?
Unlike most other Academy Awards, movies don't have to be released in the United States to be considered for the International Feature Film award. However, they must have been shown for at least seven days in a movie theater in their home country. The time period for when a film must be released is also different for this award compared to other Oscar categories.
Even though people often call it the "Foreign Film Oscar," the language of the film is more important than its nationality. A film must be made outside the U.S. and mostly spoken in a language other than English. For example, if a foreign film has too much English dialogue, it usually can't qualify. This happened with the Nigerian film Lionheart in 2019, even though English is an official language in Nigeria. Interestingly, some films with no dialogue at all, like the 1983 Algerian dance film Le Bal, have still been nominated!
A film can also be disqualified if it was shown on TV or the Internet before its theater release. Also, if the country submitting the film didn't have enough artistic control over its making, it might not be allowed. For example, Persian Lessons (2020) from Belarus was disqualified for this reason.
Since 2006, films no longer have to be in an official language of the country that submits them. This rule change was made because an Italian film called Private (2004) was disqualified simply because its main languages were Arabic and Hebrew, which are not native to Italy. Thanks to this change, a country like Canada could submit a Hindi-language film like Water and get a nomination.
However, films made in the United States are still not allowed to compete, even if they are in a non-English language. So, a Japanese-language film like Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), which was made in the U.S., couldn't compete for this Oscar.
How Films Are Chosen
Every country (except the United States) is invited to submit what they think is their best film to the Academy. Only one film is accepted from each country. A special group of film experts in each country chooses their official submission. For example, in the UK, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) makes the choice.
After all the films are submitted, copies with English subtitles are watched by a special Academy committee. This committee secretly votes to choose the five official nominees. The process has changed a bit over the years. For example, sometimes a longer list of nine or fifteen films is announced first, and then a smaller group narrows it down to the final five. As of 2022, there are two committees that help with this process.
Who Receives the Award?
The International Feature Film Award is considered a prize for the submitting country as a whole. However, the film's director is the person who officially receives the Oscar statuette. Their name is now written on the award plaque, after the country's name and the movie title. For example, the Oscar won by the Canadian film The Barbarian Invasions (2003) is now on display at the TIFF Bell lightbox.
Before 2014, the award wasn't officially given to any specific person. This meant that a famous director like Federico Fellini, even though four of his films won this award, was not considered to have personally won a competitive Oscar during his lifetime. He only won an "Honorary Award" later in his career. But since 2014, the director's name is engraved on the Oscar, making them the official recipient.
See Also
- Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
- List of Academy Award–winning foreign-language films (in categories other than the International Feature Film category itself)
- List of foreign-language films nominated for Academy Awards (in categories other than the International Feature Film category itself)
- List of Academy Award–nominated films
