This is a list of submissions to the 80th 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]
Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film The Counterfeiters For the 80th Academy Awards , which were held on February 24, 2008, the Academy invited 95 countries to submit films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[3] Sixty-three countries submitted films to the Academy, the highest number of submissions in the history of the award, including Azerbaijan and Ireland, which submitted films for the first time.[4] [5] Several of the submissions were subject to controversy. The Academy determined that initial submissions from Israel and Taiwan did not meet Academy requirements,[6] [7] and both countries submitted new films as replacements.[8] [9] Bolivia's official submission, Los Andes no creen en Dios , did not appear on the Academy's list of accepted submissions.[10]
Due to a change in the rules made for the 79th Academy Awards ,[11] the Academy published a shortlist of nine films on January 15, 2008, prior to the selection of the final five nominees.[12] The Academy engendered controversy with its selections, notably the omission of Romania 's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days , which had won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival , and France's Persepolis , the winner of the Jury Prize at the same Cannes Film Festival.[13] [14] [15] [16] [17] After revealing the shortlist, the Academy released a list of nominees on January 22, 2008.[18] The winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Austria's The Counterfeiters , which was directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky .[19]
Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Argentina XXY Spanish Lucía Puenzo Not nominated Australia The Home Song Stories Cantonese , English , Mandarin Tony Ayres Not nominated Austria The Counterfeiters Die Fälscher German , Russian , English, Hebrew Stefan Ruzowitzky Won Academy Award Azerbaijan Caucasia Qafqaz Azerbaijani , RussianFarid Gumbatov Not nominated Bangladesh On the Wings of Dreams স্বপ্নডানায় Bengali Golam Rabbany Biplob Not nominated Belgium Ben X Flemish , Dutch Nic Balthazar Not nominated Bolivia Los Andes no creen en Dios Los Andes no creen en Dios Spanish Antonio Eguino Disqualified Bosnia and Herzegovina It's Hard to be Nice Teško je biti fin Bosnian Srdan Vuletic Not nominated Brazil The Year My Parents Went On Vacation O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias Brazilian Portuguese , Yiddish Cao Hamburger Made shortlist Bulgaria Warden of the Dead Пазачът на мъртвите Bulgarian Ilian Simeonov Not nominated Canada Days of Darkness L'Âge des ténèbres French Denys Arcand Made shortlist Chile Padre Nuestro Spanish, English Rodrigo Sepúlveda Not nominated China The Knot 云水谣 Mandarin Yin Li Not nominated Colombia Satanás Spanish Andi Baiz Not nominated Croatia Armin Bosnian , Croatian , German, EnglishOgnjen Sviličić Not nominated Cuba The Silly Age La Edad de la peseta Spanish Pavel Giroud Not nominated Czech Republic I Served the King of England Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále Czech Jiri Menzel Not nominated Denmark The Art of Crying Kunsten at græde i kor Danish Peter Schønau Fog Not nominated Egypt In the Heliopolis Flat في شقة مصر الجديدة Arabic Mohamed Khan Not nominated Estonia The Class Klass Estonian Ilmar Raag Not nominated Finland A Man's Job Miehen työ Finnish Aleksi Salmenperä Not nominated France Persepolis French, English, Persian , German Vincent Paronnaud , Marjane Satrapi Not nominated Georgia The Russian Triangle რუსული სამკუთხედი Russian Aleko Tsabadze Not nominated Germany The Edge of Heaven Auf der anderen Seite German, Turkish , English Fatih Akin Not nominated Greece Eduart Albanian , German, Greek Angeliki Antoniou Not nominated Hong Kong Exiled 放逐 Cantonese , MandarinJohnnie To Not nominated Hungary Taxidermia Hungarian , English, RussianGyörgy Pálfi Not nominated Iceland Jar City Mýrin Icelandic Baltasar Kormakur Not nominated India Eklavya: The Royal Guard एकलव्य Hindi Vidhu Vinod Chopra Not nominated Indonesia Denias, Singing on the Cloud Denias Senandung Di Atas Awan Indonesian , Papuan Malay John De Rantau Not nominated Iran M for Mother میم مثل مادر Persian Rasul Mollagholipour Not nominated Iraq Jani Gal Kurdish Jamil Rostami Not nominated Ireland Kings Irish , EnglishTommy Collins Not nominated Israel Beaufort בופור Hebrew Joseph Cedar Nominated Italy La sconosciuta Italian Giuseppe Tornatore Made shortlist Japan I Just Didn't Do It それでもボクはやってない Japanese Masayuki Suo Not nominated Kazakhstan Mongol Монгол Mongolian , MandarinSergei Bodrov Nominated Lebanon Caramel سكر بنات Lebanese Arabic , FrenchNadine Labaki Not nominated Luxembourg Little Secrets Perl oder Pica Luxembourgish Pol Cruchten Not nominated Macedonia Shadows Сенки Macedonian Milčo Mančevski Not nominated Mexico Silent Light Stellet licht Plautdietsch Carlos Reygadas Not nominated Netherlands Duska Dutch, Russian Jos Stelling Not nominated Norway Gone with the Woman Tatt av Kvinnen Norwegian , English, FrenchPetter Naess Not nominated Peru Crossing a Shadow Una sombra al frente Spanish Augusto Tamayo Not nominated Philippines Donsol Bikol , Tagalog , Filipino Adolfo Alix, Jr. Not nominated Poland Katyń Polish , Russian, GermanAndrzej Wajda Nominated Portugal Belle Toujours French Manoel de Oliveira Not nominated Puerto Rico Love Sickness Maldeamores Spanish Mariem Perez , Carlitos RuizNot nominated Romania 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile Romanian Cristian Mungiu Not nominated Russia 12 Russian, Chechen Nikita Mikhalkov Nominated Serbia The Trap Klopka Serbian Srdan Golubović Made shortlist Singapore 881 Mandarin, Hokkien Royston Tan Not nominated Slovakia Return of the Storks Návrat bocianov German, Slovak Martin Repka Not nominated Slovenia Short Circuits Kratki stiki Slovene Janez Lapajne Not nominated South Korea Secret Sunshine 밀양 Korean Lee Chang-dong Not nominated Spain The Orphanage El orfanato Spanish Juan Antonio Bayona Not nominated Sweden You, the Living Du levande Swedish Roy Andersson Not nominated Switzerland Late Bloomers Die Herbstzeitlosen Swiss German Bettina Oberli Not nominated Taiwan Island Etude 練習曲 Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien , English, Lithuanian Chen Huai-En Not nominated Thailand King of Fire ตำนานสมเด็จพระนเรศวรมหาราช Thai , Mon , Burmese Chatrichalerm Yukol Not nominated Turkey A Man's Fear of God Takva Turkish Özer Kızıltan Not nominated Uruguay The Pope's Toilet El Baño del Papa Spanish Cesar Charlone , Enrique Fernandez Not nominated Venezuela Postcards from Leningrad Postales de Leningrado Mariana Rondon Not nominated Vietnam The White Silk Dress Áo lụa Hà Đông Vietnamese Luu Huynh Not nominated
Notes Bolivia submitted Los Andes no creen en Dios for review by the Academy, but it did not appear on the list of official submissions.[10] The submission for India, Eklavya: The Royal Guard , was the target of a lawsuit alleging that India's selection committee was tied to the production staff of Eklavya ; however, India retained the film as its submission.[20] The Academy determined that Israel's first submission, The Band's Visit , contained too much English dialogue for the film to meet Academy requirements,[6] [7] and Israel submitted Beaufort as a replacement.[9] The Academy determined that Taiwan's initial submission, Lust, Caution , had insufficient Taiwanese participation to be considered a valid entry under Academy rules, and Taiwan submitted Island Etude as a replacement.[8] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts was subject to criticism for not submitting the Scottish Gaelic Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle or the Welsh Calon Gaeth .[21] References External links Wikinews has related news: