NORTH MACEDONIA
2nd nom
HONEYLAND

Review, 
#15 Doc Hit

SPAIN
20th nom | 4 wins
PAIN & GLORY

Goya, Review, Podcast,
 #10 Foreign Hit, Cinematography

The other five finalists were...

Beanpole (Russia)  Review
Atlantics (Senegal) Review, Podcast,  Mati Diop Interview,  Cinematography
Truth or Justice (Estonia) Review
Those Who Remained (Hungary) Review
Painted Bird (Czech Republic)

This is the first time France has ever sent a black filmmaker to represent them.

noms: Spirit, Critics Choice, Globes
wins: Cannes (Jury Prize), EFA (discovery)

Only two docs had ever previously been nominated in Best Foreign Film (Waltz With Bashir and The Missing Picture). All three are in this century suggesting that barrier is falling.

noms / wins: many documentary
citations but no
foreign film prizes

Almodóvar won this category for All About My Mother (1999) and was also nominated for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). Three nominees in this category seems low for him but it's high overall in foreign film stats.

noms:  Critics Choice, 
Globes (Foreign), EFA, 
OFCS, Goyas
wins: LAFCA,

To qualify for submission in this category a film must have opened in its home country between October 1st, 2018 and September 30th 2019. Each country can only select one film and each country has a different process for selecting that film. That part is up to the country themselves.

• submission chart #1 AFGHANISTAN through GEORGIA
• submission chart #2  GERMANY through NORWAY
• submission chart #3 PAKISTAN through YEMEN

NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS IN RECENT YEARS

• 2019 - 91 films
• 2018 - 87 films
• 2017 - 92 films (THE ALL TIME RECORD)
• 2016 - 85 films
• 2015 - 85 films
• 2014 - 84 films
• 2013 - 76 films
• 2012 - 71 films
• 2011 - 63 films
• 2010 - 65 films
• 2009 - 67 films

COUNTRIES THAT WERE SUBMITTED BUT THEN DISQUALIFIED
Austria, Nigeria

COUNTRIES THAT REPORTED SUBMISSIONS BUT DIDN'T MAKE THE FINAL SUBMISSION LIST FOR SOME REASON
Afghanistan, Uganda

COUNTRIES THAT DID NOT SUBMIT THIS YEAR
Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Chad, Guatemaala,  Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Malawi, Mauritania, Moldovia, Paraguay, Syria
 

Most nominations for a foreign film

Roma (2018) just tied Crouching Tiger's previous solo record of 10 nominations

Most competitive wins in the category by director

Federico Fellini won 4 Oscars for Italy: La Strada (1956), Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8 1/2 (1963) and Amarcord (1974). In fact, he won every time he was nominated witin this category. Italy submitted his work three other times but Satyricon, Roma, and And the Ship Sails On were not nominated.

Most nominated country

France leads with 37 nominees (they were also given 3 honoraries before nominations began proper in 1956). Their most recent win was a long time ago now though: Indochine (1992) starring Catherine Deneuve. MORE ON FRANCE & OSCAR HERE

Most winning country

Italy leads with 14 wins (3 of which were honoraries). Some of the most famous films among their winners are The Bicycle Thief (1949), 8 1/2 (1963), The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971), Cinema Paradiso (1989), and Life is Beautiful (1998)

Most popular country with Oscar at this very moment

That would be Denmark which has been nominated 50% of the time in the last ten years -- most recently Land of Mine in 2016 -- winning once this past decade (A Better World). In addition to their 5 films nominees this past decade, they've had 2 additional finalists.

First foreign language film nominated for Best Picture

Grand Illusion (1938). But Oscar didn't start giving statues to foreign films until 11 years later and foreign films didn't get their own competitive category until 1956

Most influential snub of the past two decades

You have the horror of the snubbing of Romania's Palme d'or winner 4 Weeks, 3 Months and 2 Days (2007) to thank for the creation of the Academy's Executive Committee. Nominations have been so much better ever since!

First foreign language film to win an acting Oscar

Italy's Two Women (1961) won Best Actress for Sophia Loren who was, not unimportantly, already a major star in the US. But Italy did not submit her vehicle for Foreign Film, choosing Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte instead (which was not nominatd)

First country to break through Oscar's midcentury France/Italy/Japan obsession

For the first 12 years of foreign film Oscars only France, Italy, or Japan were ever honored. Sweden was the first country to break up that strangehold with back to back Ingmar Bergman wins for The Virgin Spring (1960) and Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

First foreign language film to win any Oscar

Switzerland's Marie-Louise (1944) won Best Screenplay, years before the foreign film category began.

First foreign language film winner to win more than one Oscar

Japan's Gate of Hell (1954) won the Honorary for Foreign Film and also took home Costume Design. Costume Design is the category with the most wins for foreign-language films (7 in total)... runners up being a three way tie between Original Screenplay, Cinematography, and Score (with 5 wins in each)

Only directors of foreign film nominees to go on to direct a Best Picture winner

Czech director Milos Forman for Loves of a Blonde (1965)/ Fireman's Ball (1967) + One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)/ Amadeus (1984) was the first to do it. Two Mexican filmmakers have followed suit: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Amores Perros (2000)/Biutiful (2010) + Birdman (2014) and Guillermo del Toro for Pan's Labyrinth (2006) + Shape of Water (2017)

Curiously no director has ever directed both a foreign film winner AND a Best Picture winner.

Only foreign film winner to also win Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón is the only person to ever win the Best Director Oscar for directing a foreign language film. Like another famous foreign director, Ang Lee, he has now won Best Director twice without winning Best Picture either time.