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CEREMONY March 2nd, 2025
For prediction, discussion, entertainment purposes only discuss on the blog
and the nominees are
87 Submissions (Oct 28) 15 Finalists Announced (Dec 17)
5 nominees announced (Jan 23) Oscar Night (March 2)
| AND THE NOMINEES ARE... | ||||
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EMILIA PEREZ TIFF Review A cartel boss, with the help of a lawyer, fakes her own death to transition and live as a woman.
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FLOW A cat struggles to survive while travelling a human-abandoned world meeting many animals along the way.
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THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE Denmark A war widow becomes pregnant with her boss's child and takes up employment with a woman who sells babies on the black market.
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I'M STILL HERE Brazil A happy family's life is shattered when the fascist government disappears the father, leaving the mother to reinvent her life and seek justice for her missing husband.
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THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG Germany TIFF Review A father's promotion is at odds with the increasing political awareness of his more modern daughters. |
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READER POLL - VOTE DAILY |
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HOW'D THEY GET NOMINATED? |
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WHAT WAS LEFT OUT? |
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Given either precursors or general buzz the films that have the most reason to weep are Ireland's Kneecap, Italy's Vermiglio, and Thailand's How To Win Millions Before Grandma Dies. Thailand has yet to score a nomination but this is the first time they've gotten close. The other finalists were Czech Republic's Waves, Iceland's Touch, Norway's Armand, Palestine's From Ground Zero, Senegal's Dahomey, and UK's Santosh. |
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WHO WILL WIN? |
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| With 12 other nominations, this prize is Emilia Perez's to lose. The dark horse is of course Brazil's I'm Still Here given that it also placed in Best Picture (surprise!) and we're assuming that not all voters have yet seen it. Emilia Perez on the other hand has been campaigned relentlessly for months. | ||||
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NATHANIEL'S IMAGINARY CHOICES |
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| My choices for 5 best from the 15 wide finalist list were: Armand (Norway), Flow (Latvia), I'm Still Here (Brazil), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), and Vermiglio (Italy)... with apologies to the very charming How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thailand). | ||||
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WHO SHOULD WIN ? (NATHANIEL'S BALLOT) |
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| While Flow is my favourite on the ballot I would vote for The Seed of the Sacred Fig here since Flow can (and should) be awarded in Best Animated Feature and I don't love double-dipping. | ||||
TRIVIA AND ANECDOTES |
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| Emilia Perez is not the first trans movie nominated in this category. Previous trans films that were nominated include Spain's, My Dearest Seniorita (1972 nominee), Spain's All About My Mother (1999 winner) and Chile's A Fantastic Woman (2017 winner) • Musical nominees in this category are rare. The only other examples we can think of are Mother India (1957), Black Orpheus (1959 winner), Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), and Lagaan (2001)... though other music heavy films have been nominated like Carmen (1983), and The Broken Circle Breakdown (2013) |
Flow is only the third animated feature to be nominated in Best International Feature after Waltz With Bashir (2008) and Flee (2022) • |
The great Trine Dyrholm, joins the rarified ranks of actors who have appeared in three or more International Feature nominees. She previously co-starred in In a Better World (2010 winner) and A Royal Affair (2012 nominee). She also starred in non-nominated submissions Celebration (THE Oscar snub of 1998), and Queen of Hearts (2019) | In a fascinating "sequel" kind of way this film directed by Walter Salles and starring Fernanda Torres is the first Brazilian movie to be nominated since Central Station which was directed by Walter Salles and starred Torres' mother Fernanda Montenegro • This film marks the 4th time Brazil has submitted Walter Salles. The other submissions were Exposure (1991), Central Station (1998 nominee), and Behind the Sun (2000). |
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87 Official Submissions |
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CHART 1 - 28 submissions
CHART 2 - 30 submissions
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| OSCAR STATS & FUN TRIVIA ABOUT THIS CATEGORY | ||||
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Most wins for a foreign film
FOUR WAY TIE Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Taiwan 2000), Fanny & Alexander's (Sweden 1983), and All Quiet... (2022) share the record with 4 wins (Foreign Film plus crafts). Parasite (South Korea, 2019) tied that number but in 'bigger' categories: Picture, Director, Screenplay, and International |
Most nominations for a foreign film Roma went on to three wins and Crouching four but neither film was able to win Best Picture. Can Emilia Perez break this trend? |
Most competitive wins in the category by director |
Most competitive wins & nominations w/out winning International Feature Pan's Labyrinth (2006) won 3 awards from 6 nominations but lost its own category to The Lives of Others. |
Most nominated country France leads with 39 nominees (they were also given 3 honoraries before nominations began proper in 1956). Their most recent win was 32 years ago with Indochine (1992) starring Catherine Deneuve. |
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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). Italy has struggled since the 21st century began, though, with only 1 win (The Great Beauty, 2013)
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Most popular country with Oscar these past two decades That would be GERMANY. In the 21st century (i.e. the past 24 years) Germany has been nominated 11 times and won thrice. More details on last row of this chart |
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 immediately improved after this committee process began. |
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) |
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First country to break through Oscar's midcentury France/Italy/Japan obsession For the first 12 years of foreign-language film honors only France, Italy, or Japan ever won. 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 Best International Feature 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. |
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) Only Bong Joon-ho has done both simultaneously (with Parasite, 2019) |
Only Best International Film winners to also win Best Director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite for South Korea) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma for Mexico) are the only directors to accomplish this feat and both were very recent. It's worth noting that Ang Lee (Taiwan) has won the Best Director category twice but curiously neither time was that win connected to either a Best Picture Winner or a Best International Film winner. Very interesting stat for Mr. Ang Lee there, showing how often he's delivered in a major way. |
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Most Overall Nominations for a Best Foreign Language Film Nominee That Didn't Win Anything (Not Even This Category) This is a three-way tie. The most recent is the French comedy Amélie (2000) which scored 5 nominations but suffered a surprise loss to Bosnia in the foreign category. |
Biggest Comeback / Revenge for a Film that Was Snubbed In This Category This answer is subjective (how to define comeback or revenge?) but the answer is probably Brazil's City of God which failed to receive a nomination in 2022 when submitted. In 2023 after its US release it scored 4 shocking nominations including Best Director. Truly no pundits or media types saw that coming that year. Other snubees that got sweet revenge after their snub? Germany's Run Lola Run (1998/1999) became an influential art house sensation. Films like Sweden's Persona (1966) and Hong Kong's In the Mood for Love (2000/2001) now regularly make lists of the greatest films of all time. |
Directors with Most Success In This Category Though *Technically* the Country Wins special cases 4 noms / 4 wins 4 noms / no wins 3 noms / 3 wins 3 noms / no wins |
Stars Who've Appeared in Most Best International Feature Film Nominees
in 3 nominated films Way too many actors have appeared in two nominated films to list but some still working include: Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas, Toni Servillo, Daniel Bruhl, Benno Furman, and Sebastian Koch |
Only Best International Film Nominees to Also Compete in Best Picture Z (1969) Nominated for Best Picture but NOT Submitted for International by Their Country Cries and Whispers (1972) Nominated for Best Picture Before International Feature Existed as a Category Grand Illusion (1938) |
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Most Popular Countries with Oscar 1. FRANCE 9. POLAND 10. CZECHOSLOVAKIA* 11 [tie] ISRAEL & YUGOSLAVIA* * country no longer exists, having split into multiple countries |
Most Popular Countries with Oscar 1. GERMANY 9. SWEDEN 10. ISRAEL runners up: Austria, Iran, Russia |
Most Popular Countries with Oscar 1. FRANCE 2. ITALY 3. GERMANY 4. SPAIN 5. SWEDEN 6. DENMARK 7. JAPAN 8. POLAND 9. HUNGARY 10. ISRAEL 11. SOVIET UNION* runners up: Mexico, Argentina, Belgium, Russia * country no longer exists, having split into multiple countries |
"NEVER GIVE UP"
03. BULGARIA (35 submissions | 1 finalist) 04. VENEZUELA (34 submissions | 1 finalist) 05. CROATIA (34 submissions) 06. PHILIPPINES (33 submissions) 07. TURKEY (31 submissions | 1 finalist) 08 THAILAND (31 submissions | 1 finalist this year!) 09 [tie] SLOVAKIA & SLOVENIA (27 submissions Slovakia...but this year? 28 submissions Slovenia) 11 INDONESIA 12 URUGUAY (24 submissions | 1 disqualified nom) runners up: |
Longest Consecutive Nomination Streaks 6 YEARS 5 YEARS 4 YEARS Germany could re-enter this very exclusive club in a year's time... 3 YEARS Mexico |
Index | Picture | Actress | Actor | Supp Actor | Supp Actress | Director
Screenplays | Visuals | Music and Sound | Animation & Docs | International Film