This is a list of submissions to the 64th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language 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 ...

was created in 1956 by the

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 motion ...

to honour non-

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

films produced outside the United States. The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country. For the

64th Academy Awards The 64th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1991 in the United States and took place on March 30, 1992, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beg ...

, thirty-four films were submitted in the category

. The five nominated films came from Czechoslovakia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Sweden and the eventual winner, ''

Mediterraneo ''Mediterraneo'' is a 1991 Italian war comedy-drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores and written by Enzo Monteleone. The film is set during World War II and concerns a group of Italian soldiers who become stranded on a Greek island in the ...

'', from Italy. Hong Kong and Iceland received their first-ever nominations, while Czechoslovakia received its final nomination as a unified state.

Submissions

Notes

* Germany caused controversy when it took the unusual step not to submit any film to the competition. ''

Europa, Europa ''Europa Europa'' (german: Hitlerjunge Salomon, lit. "Hitler Youth Salomon") is a 1990 historical war drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Hanns Zischler, and André Wilms. It is based on the 19 ...

'' by

Agnieszka Holland Agnieszka Holland (born 28 November 1948) is a Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda, ...

was one of the pre-selection favorites to win the award. Although the film was made in German and about Germany, the country's National Film Board said that because they considered the film to be a majority-French production, and because the director was Polish, they did not consider it qualified to represent Germany. This is the only time since 1977 that Germany failed to be represented. * In spite of a rule requiring films to be in the language of the submitting country, AMPAS decided to accept a submission from the United Kingdom that was mostly in Russian, marking the UK's first-ever participation in the competition. * AMPAS acknowledged that they had received four submissions from new Eastern European republics,

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

, Macedonia and

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

, which had each declared independence in mid-to-late 1991. Since none of the countries had yet been recognized internationally, the films were disqualified and not screened, although representatives from their parent states - the USSR and Yugoslavia - were allowed to compete. AMPAS did not announce the titles, but based on the small size of these republic's film industries at the time it appears certain that Macedonia chose Stole Popov's ''Tetoviranje'', the most celebrated Yugoslavian film of 1991, and that Croatia, Slovenia and Armenia likely chose family drama '' Fragments'', black comedy ''The Cartier Operation'' and surreal religious drama ''The Voice in the Wilderness'' respectively. * Other countries notable by their absence included Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Greece and Romania.

References

{{Academy Award for Best Foreign Film submissions 64