Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

has submitted films for the

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

since 1996. The award is handed out annually by the United States

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. , fifteen Australian films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and one, '' Tanna'', has been nominated for the award. The Australian submission is selected by a committee of Australian industry professionals convened and selected by

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

Submissions

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 since 1956. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

to determine the five nominees for the award. Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Australia for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony. As a majority-English-speaking country, Australia only infrequently sends non-English language movies to the Oscars. Three of their first five submissions were stories of the lives of

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Australia. Australia's first submission, ''Floating Life'' is a drama about Cantonese immigrants from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

who reunite with their daughter who moved to Australia several years before. The second submission, ''La Spagnola'' is a black comedy about a pregnant Spanish immigrant who is deserted by her husband after arriving in Australia. A subsequent submission, ''The Home Song Stories'' is about a Chinese woman from

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

who moves to Australia with her two children after marrying an Australian citizen. Both principal actors, Clara Law and Tony Ayres, were born in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and became naturalized Australian citizens. Australia's 2006, 2009 and 2014 submissions were Aboriginal Australian stories. ''Ten Canoes'' was the first feature film made primarily in one of Australia's Aboriginal languages. The film, set before the arrival of white Australian settlers, tells a

story within a story A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...

, about what happens when a young man falls for one of the brides of the local chief. ''Samson & Delilah'', the first Australian film to make an Oscar shortlist, won the Camera d'Or at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

in 2009, and focused on a teenaged Aboriginal couple on the run.

Notes

References

External links

The Official Academy Awards DatabaseIMDb Academy Awards Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Australian Submissions For The Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film

Submissions

See also

Notes

References

External links