Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film - Recipient

Recipient

Unlike the Academy Award for Best Picture, which officially goes to the winning film's producers, the Foreign Language Film Award is not given to a specific individual but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. For example, the Oscar statuette won by the Canadian film The Barbarian Invasions (2003) was until recently on display at the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City. It is now on display at the TIFF Bell lightbox.

The rules currently governing the Foreign Language Film category state that "the Academy statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the picture and accepted by the director on behalf of the film's creative talents" (emphasis added). Therefore, the director does not personally win the Award, but simply accepts it during the ceremony. In fact, the Foreign Language Film Award has never been associated with a specific individual since its creation, except for the 1956 (29th) Academy Awards, when the names of the producers were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category. A director like Federico Fellini is thus considered to have never officially won an Academy Award of Merit during his lifetime, even though four of his films received the Foreign Language Film Award (the only Academy Award that Fellini personally won was his 1992 Honorary Award). On the other hand, producers Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti are considered to have personally won the 1956 Foreign Language Film Award given to Fellini's La Strada (1954), since their names were explicitly included in the nomination.

By contrast, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language is personally awarded to the producers and director—that award's rules specifically state that the nomination is limited to a maximum of three producers plus the director(s).