List of submissions to the 75th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

The following 54 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 75th Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (release at the country of origin November 1, 2001 – October 31, 2002, ceremony March 2003). The bolded titles were the five nominated films.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Chad submitted films for the first time.

The announcement of the submitted films was delayed when the Academy was presented with four films that did not quite conform to the rules, as written:

The film from Hong Kong was quickly eliminated, but the film from Afghanistan (whose director had been brutally murdered before post-production was finished) was accepted, probably as much for symbolic reasons as anything else.

The United Kingdom was asked to submit another film since AMPAS rules stated that all films had to be in a language indigenous to the submitting country. "The Warrior" was not acceptable, AMPAS argued, because Hindi was not a language indigenous to the United Kingdom, and the film was not about, nor set among British people. Had the film been set among the Hindi-speaking community in the UK, it would have been approved. BAFTA appealed to the Academy to reconsider, but to no avail. Ironically, the film won Best British Film at the BAFTA awards the following year. Britain ended up choosing Eldra, a film in Welsh. In 2006, AMPAS changed the rules to allow countries to choose films which were not in the language of the submitting country. Canada was the first to take advantage of this new rule by submitting Water, which was also in Hindi.

AMPAS determined that Palestine was not a country, and therefore could not submit a film. They also said that there had been no "national selection committee" that chose Divine Intervention, as required by the rules. It was also unclear how the film would be released in its home country according to the rules, since Palestine had no internationally recognized boundaries. This decision was much criticized, especially since countries like Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, none of which recognized as sovereign nations by the United Nations, had been submitting movies for years. AMPAS reversed its decision the following year, and allowed Divine Intervention to compete.

The previous year's winner Bosnia & Herzegovina did not submit a film. The Islamic world was better represented in this category than any previous year on record, with ten films in competition, not including Divine Intervention.

The Brazilian submission, City of God was considered as one of the favorites, but it did not receive a nomination in the Best Foreign Film category. When the film was released the following year in the USA, it garnered nominations in four mainstream categories including Best Screenplay and Best Director. Ironically, if the film had been nominated in the Best Foreign Film category, it would have been ineligible for all the mainstream awards the following year because you cannot receive Oscar nominations in two different ceremonies.

List

Country Film title used in nomination Original title Language Director
 Afghanistan FireDancer FireDancer Dari, English Jawed Wassel
 Algeria Rachida Rachida French, Arabic Yamina Bachir-Chouikh
 Argentina Kamchatka Kamchatka Spanish Marcelo Piñeyro
 Austria Gebürtig Gebürtig German Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik
 Bangladesh The Clay Bird মাটির ময়না Bangla Tareque Masud
 Belgium The Son Le Fils French Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
 Brazil City of God Cidade de Deus Portuguese Fernando Meirelles
 Bulgaria Warming Up Yesterday's Lunch Подгряване на вчерашния обед Bulgarian Kostadin Bonev
 Canada Un crabe dans la tête Un crabe dans la tête French André Turpin
 Chad Abouna Abouna Chadian Arabic, French Mahamat Saleh Haroun
 Chile Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui Spanish Alejandro Rojas
 China Hero 英雄 Mandarin Chinese Zhang Yimou
 Colombia The Invisible Children Los Niños invisibles Spanish Lisandro Duque Naranjo
 Croatia Fine Dead Girls Fine mrtve djevojke Croatian Dalibor Matanić
 Cuba Nothing More Nada Spanish Juan Carlos Cremata
 Czech Republic Wild Bees Divoké vcely Czech Bohdan Sláma
 Denmark Open Hearts Elsker dig for evigt Danish Susanne Bier
 Egypt The Secret of the Young Girl أسرار البنات Arabic Magdy Ahmed Aly
 Finland The Man Without a Past Mies vailla menneisyyttä Finnish Aki Kaurismaki
 France 8 Femmes 8 femmes French François Ozon
 Georgia Tbilisi-Tbilisi თბილისი-თბილისი Georgian Levan Zakareishvili
 Germany Nowhere in Africa (winner) Nirgendwo in Afrika German, Swahili Caroline Link
 Greece The Only Journey of His Life Το μόνον της ζωής του ταξείδιον Greek Lakis Papastathis
 Hong Kong The Touch[1] 天脈傳奇 English Peter Pau
 Hungary Hukkle Hukkle Hungarian György Pálfi
 Iceland The Sea Hafið Icelandic Baltasar Kormakur
 India Devdas (2002 film) देवदास Hindi Sanjay Leela Bhansail
 Indonesia Ca-bau-kan Ca-bau-kan Indonesian Nia diNata
 Iran I'm Taraneh, 15 من ترانه 15 سال دارم Persian Rassul Sadr-Ameli
 Israel Broken Wings כנפיים שבורות Hebrew Nir Bergman
 Italy Pinocchio Pinocchio Italian Roberto Benigni;
 Japan Out OUT Japanese Hideyuki Hirayama
 South Korea Oasis 오아시스 Korean Lee Chang-dong
 Lebanon When Maryam Spoke Out لمّا حكيت مريم Arabic mAssad Fouladkar
 Luxembourg Petites misères Petites misères French Laurent Brandenburger & Philippe Boon
 Mexico The Crime of Padre Amaro El crimen del Padre Amaro Spanish Carlos Carrera
 Netherlands Zus & Zo Zus & Zo Dutch Paula van der Oest
 Norway Hold My Heart Tyven, tyven Norwegian Trygve Allister Diesen
 Philippines Small Voices Mga Munting tinig Tagalog Gil M. Portes
 Poland Edi Edi Polish Piotr Trzaskalski
 Portugal O Delfim O Delfim Portuguese Fernando Lopes
 Romania Philanthropy Filantropica Romanian Nae Caranfil
 Russia House of Fools Дом дураков Russian, Chechen Andrei Konchalovsky
 Slovakia Cruel Joys Kruté radosti Slovak Juraj Nvota
 Slovenia Headnoise Zvenenje v glavi Slovene Andrej Košak
 Spain Mondays in the Sun Los lunes al sol Spanish Fernando Leon de Aranoa
 Sweden Lilja 4-ever Lilja 4-ever Swedish, Russian Lukas Moodysson
 Switzerland Aime ton père Aime ton père French Jacob Berger
 Taiwan The Best of Times 美麗時光 Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese, Hakka Chang Tso-chi
 Thailand Monrak Transistor มนต์รักทรานซิสเตอร์ Thai Pen-ek Ratanaruang
 Tunisia The Magic Box La Boîte magique French, Arabic Rida Behi
 Turkey 9 Dokuz Turkish Ümit Ünal
 United Kingdom Eldra[2] Eldra Welsh Tim Lyn
 Uruguay Corazon de Fuego El Último tren Spanish Diego Arsuaga
 Venezuela The Archangel's Feather La Pluma del arcángel Spanish Luis Manzo
 Yugoslavia Labyrinth Лавиринт Serbian Miroslav Leki

Notes

  1. ^ the film was disqualified because the dialogue was completely in English, and not in a Foreign Language
  2. ^ The United Kingdom originally selected The Warrior, which was not accepted by the Academy

References

"Record-Breaking 54 Countries in Competition for Oscar" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2002-12-02. http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2002/02.12.02.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22.