List of submissions to the 61st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

The following 31 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 61st Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The bolded titles were the five nominated films, which came from Belgium, Hungary, India, Spain and the eventual winner, Pelle the Conqueror, from Denmark.^[1]

The Dutch submission, the thriller The Vanishing, was disqualified by the Oscar committee.^[2] AMPAS complained that less than 50% of the dialogue in the film was in Dutch, and that French was the majority language. Although the film was made by the Netherlands with a French-Dutch filmmaker and a mixed cast (mostly Dutch), AMPAS deemed that the film was not suitable to represent the Netherlands. The Netherlands declined to send another film, leaving them unrepresented for the first time since 1972. The Soviet film was filmed in 1967, but was banned for twenty years.

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Language(s)	Original title	Director(s)	Result
Argentina	The Debt	Spanish	La Deuda interna	Miguel Pereira	Not Nominated
Austria	Undiscovered Country	German	Das Weite Land	Luc Bondy	Not Nominated
Belgium	The Music Teacher	French	Le Maître de musique	Gérard Corbiau	Nominated
Brazil	The Story of Fausta	Portuguese	Romance da Empregada	Bruno Barreto	Not Nominated
Bulgaria	Where Do We Go?	Bulgarian	А сега накъде	Rangel Vulchanov	Not Nominated
Canada	The Revolving Doors	French	Les portes tournantes	Francis Mankiewicz	Not Nominated
China	Red Sorghum	Chinese	红高粱	Zhang Yimou	Not Nominated
Cuba	Letters from the Park	Spanish	Cartas del parque	Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	Not Nominated
Denmark	Pelle the Conqueror	Danish	Pelle erobreren	Bille August	Won Academy Award
Dominican Republic	One Way Ticket	Spanish	Un Pasaje de Ida	Agliberto Meléndez	Not Nominated
France	The Reader	French	La Lectrice	Michel Deville	Not Nominated
West Germany	Yasemin	German	Yasemin	Hark Bohm	Not Nominated
Greece	In the Shadow of Fear	Greek	Στη σκιά του τρόμου	Giorgos Karypidis	Not Nominated
Hungary	Hanussen	Hungarian	Hanussen	István Szabó	Nominated
Iceland	In the Shadow of the Raven	Icelandic	Í skugga hrafnsins	Hrafn Gunnlaugsson	Not Nominated
India	Salaam Bombay!	Hindi	Salaam Bombay!	Mira Nair	Nominated
Israel	The Summer of Aviya	Hebrew	הקיץ של אביה	Eli Cohen	Not Nominated
Italy	The Legend of the Holy Drinker	Italian	La Leggenda del santo bevitore	Ermanno Olmi	Not Nominated
Japan	Hope and Pain	Japanese	ダウンタウン・ヒーローズ	Yoji Yamada	Not Nominated
Mexico	The Last Tunnel	Spanish	El Último túnel	Servando González	Not Nominated
Netherlands	The Vanishing	Dutch, French	Spoorloos	George Sluizer	Disqualified
Nicaragua	The Ghost of War	Spanish	El Espectro de la guerra	Ramiro Lacayo-Deshon	Not Nominated
Norway	The Ice Palace	Norwegian	Is-slottet	Per Blom	Not Nominated
Peru	The Mouth of the Wolf	Spanish	La Boca del lobo	Francisco José Lombardi	Not Nominated
Poland	A Short Film About Love	Polish	Krótki film o milosci	Krzysztof Kieślowski	Not Nominated
Portugal	Hard Times	Portuguese	Tempos Difíceis	João Botelho	Not Nominated
Puerto Rico	Tango Bar	Spanish	Tango Bar	Marcos Zurinaga	Not Nominated
Spain	Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown	Spanish	Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios	Pedro Almodóvar	Nominated
Switzerland	La Méridienne	French	La Méridienne	Jean-François Amiguet	Not Nominated
Taiwan	My Mother's Teahouse	Chinese	春秋茶室	Chen Kunhou	Not Nominated
Soviet Union	Commissar	Russian	Комиссар	Aleksandr Askoldov	Not Nominated
Yugoslavia	My Uncle's Legacy	Serbo-Croatian	Život sa stricem	Krsto Papić	Not Nominated

References