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« Sundance: Choose Your Own Interpretation of "Luce" | Main | Sundance: "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" »
Wednesday
Jan302019

All 95 Foreign Film Nominees This Century. Oscar & Box Office Trivia!

by Nathaniel R

Roma's great competition: Shoplifters, Never Look Away, Cold War, and Capernaum

Dear readers, I've been filled with existential despair this week. I'm not sure how to continue covering the Oscars next year if the Oscars are going to drain all the art out of it by denying all the categories that make cinema, cinema, and announcing them off air. I haven't quite formed my thoughts on this (I expect this upcoming Oscar night to be disastrous) for a complete post but while we still have the more movie-fan friendly categories to look forward to let's continue to talk about them!  We've done some research on how the foreign film category tends to fare in the US marketplace that we wanted to share. In addition to being a super high quality roster, this year's Foreign Film list has done well with audiences, too. 

Both Poland's Cold War  and Japan's Shoplifters have become genuine hits and will certainly outgross the long runs of the last few years worth of most talked about foreign flicks whether or not they were Oscar nominated like The Square, A Fantastic Woman , Elle, The Salesman, and The Handmaiden. In fact, in any year without Roma or each other in it, wouldn't Cold War or Shoplifters be winning this category with ease ?!? 

After the jump, let's take a look back at all 95 nominees this century and how well they fared at the box office. Plus lots of trivia just because trivia is fun and will ward off the despair...

Crouching Tiger, the "Titanic" of subtitles pictures, an unstoppable phenomenon

EVERY BEST FOREIGN FILM NOMINEE THIS CENTURY (2000-2018). RANKED BY U.S. GROSS
For those who don't follow this sort of thing, please note that a $1 million gross for a subtitled picture is a pretty major success in the US marketplace given the tiny niche they're allowed to occupy. Anything that goes into 8 figures (the $10 million+ club) is a genuine blockbuster within the US foreign film context.

★ = Oscar winner
* = they outgrossed the film that beat them for the Oscar
† = nominated in additional categories beyond foreign film
🔺 This year's crop!

  1. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Taiwan, 2000) †★ $128.0
    Probably the last subtitled film that will ever crack $100 million in the US and as such it feels more like it belongs to the 20th century than the 21st. The box office potential, post-streaming and post theatrical window shrinkage, is much smaller now for foreign films than it was in the second half of the 20th century. Though one can argue with streaming that there is now more access to cinema from around the world so you win a little you lose a little.
  2. Hero (China, 2002) * $53.7
  3. Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico, 2006) *† $37.6

  4. Amelie (France, 2001) *† $33.2
  5. The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006) ★ $11.2
    Though a huge arthouse hit, it wasn't the top grosser. That honor went to Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth which grossed a stunning $37.6. This year was one of only three years this century where four of the five foreign film nominees (all but Algeria's Days of Glory) were arthouse hits, cracking a million at US theaters. In no year this century have all five nominees managed to do that... unless you count this season because if the grosses for Roma hadn't been hidden we maybe might have had the first instance in this century of ALL of the nominees becoming bonafide on-the-record hits. No one knows how much Roma grossed beyond Netflix but we assume, given the media coverage and audience enthusiasm that it probably cracked a million though it couldn't possibly have gotten beyond, say, $2 of $3 million given the brevity of the release. 
           Those were the genuine blockbusters. Now the big hits (as subtitled films go)
  6. A Separation (Iran, 2011) †★ $7.0
    Another strong year for the category in terms of audience interest. Only Belgium's Bullhead wasn't a hit in theaters, though it gave us Matthias Schoenaerts so we are eternally grateful.
  7. Amour (Austria, 2012) †★ $6.7
    And the third year were four of the five were genuine hits (all but Canada's War Witch)
  8. The Secret In Their Eyes (Argentina, 2009) ★ $6.3
  9. Nowhere in Africa (Germany, 2002) ★$6.1

  10. The Crime of Father Amaro (Mexico, 2002) $5.7
  11. Mongol (Kazakhstan, 2007) * $5.7
  12. Downfall (Germany, 2004) * $5.5
  13. The Counterfeiters (Austria, 2007) ★ $5.4
  14. Amores Perros (Mexico, 2000) $5.4
  15. Biutiful (Mexico, 2010)*† $5.1
  16. Cold War (Poland, 2018) *† $4.5 🔺
  17. Ida (Poland, 2014) †★ $3.8
  18. The Class (France, 2008) * $3.7
  19. A Man Called Ove (Sweden, 2016) *† $3.4
  20. The Barbarian Invasions (Canada, 2003) ★† $3.4 2003 was one of the least popular years ever for this category. ONLY the winner was of interest to American audiences. But part of that was the fault of distributors. Here's where we have a pinpoint example of how terrible distributors sometimes are about striking while the iron is hot. Two of the nominees, The Netherlands Twin Sisters and Sweden's Evil were not released until 2005 in the States (a year and a half after the Oscar race!) and weren't even able to earn $20,000. 
  21. Shoplifters (Japan, 2018) * $3.3 🔺
  22. Water (Canada, 2006) $3.2
  23. Wild Tales (Argentina, 2014) $3.1  
                   The following were all hits, grossing over a million in the US marketplace
  24. Tsotsi (South Africa, 2005) ★ $2.9
  25. The Great Beauty (Italy, 2013) ★ $2.8
  26. The Salesman (Iran, 2016) ★ $2.4
  27. No (Chile, 2012) $2.3
  28. Waltz With Bashir (Israel, 2008) * $2.2 This had the misfortune of being released in a year where there were only 3 animated features nominated in that corresponding category. Had it been a year with 5 it might have ended up our first crossover nominee between the two categories.
  29. The White Ribbon (Germany, 2009) † $2.2
  30. The Sea Inside (Mexico, 2004) ★† $2.1
  31. Un Prophete (France, 2009) * $2.0
  32. Incendies (Canada, 2010) $2.0
  33. A Fantastic Woman (Chile, 2017) ★ $2.0
  34. Monsieur Lazhar (Canada, 2011) $2.0
  35. Footnote (Israel, 2011) $2.0
  36. Son of Saul (Hungary, 2015) ★ $1.7
  37. Capernaum (Lebanon, 2018) *$1.6 🔺
  38. The Chorus (France, 2004)† $1.5
  39. A Royal Affair (Denmark, 2012) $1.5
  40. Remember when Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander were still essentially foreign film stars?
  41. After the Wedding (Denmark, 2006) $1.5
  42. Kon-Tiki (Norway, 2012) $1.5
  43. The Square (Sweden, 2017) $1.5
  44. Departures (Japan, 2008) ★ $1.4 Outgrossed by two of its competitors which is actually quite rare. Usually the winner is either the biggest hit or, less commonly, the second biggest.
  45. Toni Erdmann (Germany, 2016) $1.4
  46. Paradise Now (Palestine, 2005) $1.4
  47. Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia, 2015) $1.3
  48. Divided We Fall (Czech Republic, 2001) $1.3 A very rare case of a film doing really well even though it was released after the Oscar competition. As you'll see later in this list, that's a major error commonly made by distributors.
  49. Never Look Away (German, 2018) *† $1.2🔺
  50. Leviathan (Russia, 2014) $1.0
  51. Timbuktu (Mauritania, 2014) $1.0
  52. Joyeux Noel (France, 2005) $1.0
  53. In Darkness (Poland, 2011) $1.0
  54. No Man's Land (Bosnia, 2001) ★ $1.0
  55. In a Better World (Denmark, 2010) ★ $1.0Outgrossed by two of its competitors which is actually quite rare. Usually the winner is either the biggest hit or, less common, the second biggest. In a Better World was the least successful of this category's winners this century at the US box office.
  56. The Insult (Lebanon, 2017) $1.0
                 The next group almost caught on but didn't quite
  57. The Man Without a Past (Finland, 2002) $921k
  58. The Taste of Others (France, 2000) $891k
  59. Mustang (France, 2015) $845k
  60. Lagaan (India, 2001) $835k Insane that this is the only Bollywood musical ever nominated, right
  61. Sophie Scholl - The Final Days (Germany, 2005) $680k Released several months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  62. Son of the Bride (Argentina, 2001) $625k Released the weekend of the Oscars. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  63. Ajami (Israel, 2009) $622k
  64. The Hunt (Denmark, 2013) $613k
  65. Loveless (Russia, 2017) $566k
  66. Twilight Samurai (Japan, 2003) $559k Released a month after the Oscars. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
           Underperformers given the acclaim / awards attention 
  67. The Baadher Meinhof Complex (Germany, 2008) $476k Released several months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.                   
  68. Land of Mine (Denmark, 2016) $435k
  69. Omar (Palestine, 2013) $356k
  70. Zelary (Czech Republic) $330k
  71. Days of Glory (Algeria, 2006) $320k
  72. Ellling (Norway, 2001) $314k Released two months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  73. Theeb (Jordan, 2015) $283k
  74. Revanche (Austria, 2008) $192k Released a couple of months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  75. Broken Circle Breakdown (The Netherlands, 2013) $175k
  76. Bullhead (Belgium, 2011) $151k
  77. Tangerines (Estonia, 2014) $144k Released two months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  78. 12 (Russia, 2007) $125k Released two full years after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  79. A War (Denmark, 2015) $122k
  80. Katyn (Poland, 2007) $118k Released one year after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  81. Dogtooth (Greece, 2010) $110k
  82. Beaufort (Israel, 2007) $102k
               Flopped. Barely anyone saw them...
  83. Outside the Law (Algeria, 2010) $96k
  84. Everybody's Famous! (Belgium, 2000) $81k Released a few months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  85. War Witch (Canada, 2012) $70k Released one week after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  86. The Missing Picture (Cambodia, 2013) $52k Released two weeks after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  87. Zus & Zo (The Netherlands, 2002) $49k
  88. Tanna (Australia, 2016) $46k
  89. Don't Tell  (Italy, 2006) $29k Released a week after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot. 
  90. Evil (Sweden, 2003) $15k Released two full years after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  91. The Milk of Sorrow (Peru, 2009) Released several months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  92. As It Is In Heaven (Sweden, 2004) $10k Released three full years after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
  93. Twin Sisters (The Netherlands, 2003) $1k Released several months after the Oscar ceremony. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
          The final three films were either not released in the US or grosses were hidden
  94. [TIE] Yesterday (South Africa, 2004), Roma (Mexico, 2018) †🔺, On Body and Soul (Hungary, 2017)

Roma, which tied "Crouching Tiger" for most nominations ever for a Foreign Language Film, delivered Mexico its first win in the category.

SOME TRIVIA ABOUT THE LIST

• There have only been three years this century where 4 of the 5 titles were genuine hits. In no Oscar competition since 2000 have all 5 nominees cracked a million. The three years where almost the whole field were hits with American audiences were 2006 (The Lives of Others), 2011 (A Separation), and 2012 (Amour)... the latter of which is, not so incidentally, the year in which yours truly was invited on CNNi to discuss the category! It's worth noting that in all of those years, some of the titles were up for additional prizes beyond Best Foreign Film, so one might argue that any extra attention rubs off on the whole field. 

• The lowest average gross year for this category in the new century is 2013. Italy's The Great Beauty, which won, was the only film to pass a million at the US box office. The average gross was $809k

• In the 20th century six countries ruled the Oscars for foreign language film: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the USSR (and in roughly that order). But it's been different story in the 21st century. For the years 2000 through 2018, the top ten countries have been:

01. Germany (8 nominations, 2 wins)
02. Denmark (6 nominations, 1 win)
03. France (7 nominations, no wins)
04. Canada (5 nominations, 1 win)
05. Poland (4 nominations, 1 win)
06. Austria (3 nominations, 2 wins)
07. [TIE] Argentina, Japan (3 nominations, 1 win)
09. [TIE] Mexico, Israel, Sweden (4 nominations, no wins)

Italy, Japan, Russia, and Spain have not been significant forces this century (thus far) and France hasn't won since 1992 over a quarter century ago. Germany's success aside, it's all quite a stark contrast from the first 50ish years of this category.

• Who are the most common movie stars represented these past 19 years of the category? Unless we've missed someone three men are tied having appeared in three nominees since 2000: Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros - his film debut, The Crime of Father Amaro both from Mexico and Chile's nominee No), Denmark's Mads Mikkelsen (Danish nominees The Hunt, A Royal Affair, After the Wedding) and Argentina's Ricardo Darín (Argentine nominees Son of the Bride and Wild Tales and the Argentine winner The Secret in Their Eyes). Runners up: a ton of people have shown up in two pictures nominated for foreign language film in this time frame including but not limited to: Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside, Biutiful), Bruno Ganz (Downfall, Baader Meinhoff), Tom Schilling (Baader Meinhoff, Never Look Away), Joanna Kulig (Ida, Cold War), Juliane Köhler (Nowhere in Africa, Downfall), Tryne Dyrholm (A Royal Affair, In a Better World), Shahab Hosseini (A Separation, The Salesman), and Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hero)

• Repeat directors this century in this category? In the past 19 years we've had nine repeat offenders. Oscar has taken a liking to Iran's Asghar Farhadi (2 winning foreign films) who has also been nominated for writing, Poland's Pawel Pawlikowski (2 nominated films / 1 win for Ida) who is up for Best Director this year, Austria's Michael Haneke (2 nominated films / 1 win for Amour) and he has been up for Best Director, too, Germany's Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (2 nominated films / 1 win for The Lives of Others) and he's in the list this year again with Never Look Away, Russia's Andrey Zvyagintsev (2 nominated films), Mexico's Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu (2 nominated films) who has won multiple Oscars outside of his foreign language films, Denmark's Susanne Bier (2 nominated films), Israel's Joseph Cedar (2 nominated films), and Palestine's Hany Abu-Assad (2 nominated films). 

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Reader Comments (38)

Well, ok. I've made my project lately to track down every nominee for Best Foreign Film, and I've seen every nominee since 2000. (Worry not - I've also almost finished the 1990s!) So without further ado, here would be my choices for each year:
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001: Amelie
2002: The Crime of Padre Amaro
2003: Twilight Samurai
2004: Tomorrow
2005: Tsotsi
2006: The Lives of Others
2007: Mongol
2008: The Baader-Meinhof Syndrome
2009: A Prophet
2010: Incendies
2011: A Separation
2012: Amour
2013: Omar
2014: Leviathan
2015: Mustang
2016: A Salesman
2017: Loveless
2018: Shoplifters

My very favorite of them all is Amelie

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterken s.

One edit to include in the last paragraph. Bier has 1 win out of her 2 nominations.

Love your dedication to this category. As a non-American reading your blog, it's always so encouraging to hear this kind of coverage. Crouching Tiger's gross is AMAZING. It was #12 highest grossing film of its year, and over $200 adjusted for inflation. Can you imagine a foreign movie even getting anywhere near that nowadays???

Maybe this year all 5 nominees will finally crack $1 million. All five are high profile enough that hopefully with 1 month to go they manage to get that far.

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAlexD

The Sea Inside - Spain

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJavier

Spain's drought may end next year. I've just seen the trailer of Almodóvar's Dolor y gloria and it looks amazing. Absolutely amazing. Volver meets Bad Education.

I've lost my faith in a France-The Academy reconciliation

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPeggy Sue

I've said it before, but it needs repeating.... thank you for your inexhaustible coverage of the foreign film world. So many sites have tunnel vision on what cinema has to offer our world.

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDan

As usual, "qualifying run" are my two least favorite words as Capernaum and Never Look Away haven't shown up in Seattle yet (2/8 and 2/22, I think). Before the Oscars, but right up to the deadline for the longest one.

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterChris K

Shout out to A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, which France didn’t nominate in its year, but was still nominated for two Oscars.

Is it weird to like this one more than Amelie? My friend always called it “Amelie Goes to War.”

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJames from Ames

Was wondering where Volver was until I realized that NOPE it was snubbed. Would have been top 10, along with City of God. Ugh.

January 30, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterArlo

I'm still flabbergasted by "The Handmaiden" not being nominated - was it not submitted, or was it just a victim of the anti-Asian cinema bias of the academy? It's right up there with my favorites of previous years - e.g. "A Separation" - and this year - "Roma" and "Shoplifters."

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRebecca

Fascinating that the two highest grossing nominees this century were both Chinese films. It's a darned shame the Academy doesn't seem to reward Asian films very often.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterajnrules

@Rebecca: The Handmaiden was not submitted: they chose The Age of Shadows instead.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBruno

It is crazy to think that a Kazakh film made almost $6 million dollars!

Also, the gif of Omar! Lol. Somebody’s thirsty...

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterEvan

Thanks for this wonderful research. Like so many other readers of this site, I really appreciate all the work you do to highlight the Foreign Language Film category, and films in languages other than English more generally.

Speaking of which, three non-English-language movies that came out in the middle of the decade did good busines (for a foreign-language film) but, being US productions/co-productions, were ineligible for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. I speak, of course, of The Passion of the Christ, Letters from Iwo Jima and The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly. They are a reminder that audiences do have an appetite for foreign-language fare...but having an Oscar-winning director, or Steven Spielberg or Kathleen Kennedy as one of your producers, helps it stand out from the crowd!

ken s.: Great work! I see you're a Zvyagintsev fan. Leviathan and Loveless are two of my faves of recent years too.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterEdward L.

I gave the Oscar to Indochine!

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterGlenn Close

And I took Mary McDonnell’s slightly more worthy Oscar. Let’s focus on the films in the article.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterEmma Thompson

Ken, I share your enthusiasm for Leviathan and Loveless. I, too, regard this category as a challenge and I try to view not only the nominees but those films chosen by their nations for consideration. On average, I succeed in seeing 15-20 of here films for any given year. It is a challenge.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPete

Edward/Pete - I also try to see as many of the unsuccessful submissions as possible and feel glad if I can see 20 (or more). I could also list my "Best Submission Not Nominated" for each year, but I'll spare everybody, although this year it was I Am Not a Witch, which I liked even better than Burning. Zvyagintsev is a a modern master, but it was still tough in 2014 to choose him over Timbuktu, another powerful classic.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterken s.

About 15 years ago I would vow to watch all the submitted films. Now it's just too many every year so I do my best.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBruno

@James from Ames: As I remember, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT was deemed ineligible because it was largely funded by Warner Brothers, which made it an American production, not a French one. I'm not sure how ROMA skirted by these rules.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDan H.

@Dan H. Enforcement of those rules has always been spotty. They've even changed some of them like how they used to stipulate that the film had to be in an official language of the submitting country. I can't recall if there have been disqualifications recently...the last I heard about was them not allowing submissions from Puerto Rico anymore.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBruno

I think A Very Long Engagement was not made the official selection by the French for whatever reason. It may be the French deciding that it wasn't a true French production.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRaul

Bruno, Ken, etcetera -- i only wish we could learn of the submissions sooner than we do. I make an effort to see foreign films at festivals but it's a total crapshoot because the bulk of them aren't eventually submitted for their countries. but whenever I've accidentally seen one it's always so satisfying :)

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterNATHANIEL R

@Nathaniel: Yeah that would be nice, it's too bad most of them wait until that fall deadline. I think Israel & Greece have "automatic bids," as it were, so at least those are discoverable early.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBruno

That was a problem for me this year. For the first time ever I went to the Toronto Film Festival (early September). The choices were finalized by October 1, so many (I think about half) countries had announced their candidates, and I was able to get tickets for those, but too many countries made their decisions known right at the end, so I missed out on quite a few, most noticeably Hungary and Iceland. Luckily the latter is scheduled to come to our local arthouse in March.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterken s.

Indiewire writes that Roma has made around $3M but the numbers are just guesses. It could've easily made over $10-15 million if it wasn't released by Netflix.

Nathaniel: Me too. I wish we knew the submissions sooner. So frustrating.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRod

The one thing that jumps out at me is that Lagaan would closer to the top of this list if it were released today. The market for Indian films has greatly expanded since 2001. Many of them clear $1 million with ease now.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterSquasher88

Rod -- yeah, i dont trust the numbers. From my understanding they got the numbers from Netflix but Netflix four-walls theaters so there are literally no checks and balances. Normally box office grosses are estimated by studios and reported by theater chains so there's more than just one source weighing in. Netflix would only benefit from overreporting but the fact that they dont report at all makes the supposed number they gave indiewire highly suspect. It sounds too tidy a number to me. $3 million is a number that is flattering but is not high enough to raise suspicion. Most foreign films that gross $3 million are in theaters a long time before they do (other than Bollywood pictures of course that tend to last only a couple of weeks but make a ton of money in their opening weekend) I remember it took Elle something like 5 months to clear $2 million and people were talking about that movie all the time.

January 31, 2019 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Ken -- don't miss Iceland's movie. It's great and Jodie Foster already snatched up remake rights (not that it needs a remake)

January 31, 2019 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Favourite foreign films from year 2000

2000 - In The Mood For Love/ Under The Sand/ Amores Perros/ Together/ Dancer in the dark
2001 - The Son´s Room/ Das Experiment / Spirited Away
2002 - Talk to her / City of God/ Hero/ Infernal Affairs / Irreversible/ Lilya 4-Ever
2003 - Swimming Pool/ Memories of Murder/ Infernal Affairs II/ The Triplets of Belleville/ Dogville
2004 - Der Untergang/ Maria Full of Grace/ Howl's Moving Castle/ 3-Iron
2005 - Cache
2006 - Deiji/ The Lives of Others/ Reprise
2007 - Pans Labyrinth
2008 - Waltz with Bashir/ Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
2009 - The Secret in their Eyes/ The White Ribbon/ I Am Love/ A Prophet/ Let The Right One In
2010 -
2011 - Oslo, 31. august
2012 - Mustang
2013 - Stranger by the Lake/ Like Father like son / The Tale of The Princess Kaguya/ ida/ Tom à la ferme
2014 - Force Majeure/ La grande bellezza
2015 - Mustang/ Son Of Saul
2016 - The Handmaiden
2017 - Elle
2018 -

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterManuel

Nathaniel: I've got it penciled in. Especially knowing there will be a Hollywood remake. They're not all bad, I know, but we need look no further than this weekend's box office. Miss Bala is a fantastic Mexican film, and the reviews of this American version are confirming everything I would suspect has gone wrong. Please everybody, if you haven't seen the original, hunt it down! Now!

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterken s.

A few not nominated films I wanted to give shout-out to:

Taxidermia (Hungary, 2006)
Sami Blood (Sweden, 2016)
Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008)
Child's Pose (Romania, 2013)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania, 2005)
Take My Eyes (Spain, 2003)
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Canada, 2005)
Kitchen Stories (Norway, 2003)
Applause (Denmark, 2009)
Oasis (South Korea, 2002)
Oldboy (South Korea, 2002)
Mother (South Korea, 2009)
Poetry (South Korea, 2010)
Spring Summer Fall Winter & Spring (South Korea, 2003)
3-Iron (South Korea, 2004)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, 2010)
Duck Season (Mexico, 2004)
Mamma Gogo (Iceland, 2009)

I'm sure so many I'm forgetting.

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBruno

Bruno & Rebecca -- but even if The Handmaiden had been submitted one assumes Oscar would have passed it over because they clearly have something against South Korean masterworks. (sigh)

January 31, 2019 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

In your stats round up for each country, shouldn't Poland be ahead of Israel, Mexico and Sweden for having four noms and one win with "Ida"?

January 31, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDanny

What ever happened to Summer 1993? The reviews were stellar.

February 1, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDaya

Danny, oops. you're right.

February 1, 2019 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is definitely the top 1 and it's my favorite one :).

February 20, 2020 | Unregistered Commentergomovies

Why isn't Kungfu Hustle on this list? It is a great foreign movie. I even watched it more than 1 time on gomovies.

February 20, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterbilly

Very impressed, thanks for sharing.Street View Online

July 16, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJohn
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