Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film - History

History

When the first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929, no foreign language film was honored. During the early post-war era (1947–1955), eight foreign language films received Special or Honorary Awards. Academy leader and board member Jean Hersholt argued that "an international award, if properly and carefully administered, would promote a closer relationship between American film craftsmen and those of other countries." The first foreign language film honored with such an award was the Italian neorealist drama Shoe-Shine, whose citation read: "the high quality of this motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity." In the following years, similar awards were given to seven other films: one from Italy (The Bicycle Thief), two from France (Monsieur Vincent and Forbidden Games), three from Japan (Rashomon, Gate of Hell and Samurai, The Legend of Musashi), as well as a Franco-Italian co-production (The Walls of Malapaga). These awards, however, were handed out on a discretionary rather than a regular basis (no award was given at the 26th Academy Awards held in 1954), and were not competitive since there were no nominees but simply one winning film per year.

A separate category for non-English-language films was created in 1956. Known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, it has been awarded annually since then. The first recipient was the Italian neorealist drama La Strada, which helped establish Federico Fellini as one of the most important European directors.