This year four European films (Belgian, German, Irish and Polish) and one Argentinian entry have been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Let's take a look back at the history of the Oscars to see which countries were the most successful.
Italy has received the most awards for foreign films at the Oscars. Although only one Italian film has won an Oscar this century, Italy was always the big favorite in the golden era of cinema Italiano. Overall, the southern European country received 14 awards from 32 nominations.
French exception
France is hot on the heels of Italy with more nominations (41) but has only won the award 12 times. The French film industry has not had a glorious night in three decades, with the last film to win an award being Indochine in 1993.
Japan is a distant third with 5 awards, the last two of which were presented in 2009 and 2022. The first three prizes were awarded in the early years of Oscar history
And the Oscar goes to...
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Film has been presented in its current form since 1956, but originally it was an honorary award in 1947.
It was selected by the Academy's Board of Governors with no other nominated films in the competition. During the life of the prize, the Board of Directors gave four awards to Italy, France and Japan each won three, and in 1950 a Franco-Italian co-production was honored.
Next up are two European countries, both of which have won four awards for their films: Spain and Denmark. A total of 20 Spanish films were nominated, compared to 14 Danish ones.
Sweden is special because the same director, Ingmar Bergman, has won the award three times. To put that in perspective, he has won 10 times in the competition, while the entire Swedish film industry has received 16 Oscar nominations in this category.
Russian films have won four Oscars for best foreign film, 3 of which are from the Soviet era.
Non-English language films in the Best Film category
Only two non-English language foreign films have triumphed in the Best Film category: The Artist in 2012, a French film composed mostly of silent films, and the South Korean film Parasite, which became the first non-English language winner in 2020 the story went down.
This year, the German anti-war film "All quiet on the Western front" can repeat history, and not only in terms of language. In 1930, the first film based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel of the same name won the Oscar for Best Picture.
