Brazil
6th nom | 1 win 

THE SECRET
AGENT
Kleber Mendoca Filho
160 minutes
Portuguese

Cannes Review

Setting: 1977, Recife

Plot: An academic in hiding in a community of political refugees  is pursuit by hired assassins

Also nominated for: Picture, Actor, Casting

Previous submissions: Neighboring Sounds (2013), Pictures of Ghosts (2023)

Other famous pictures by Mendoca: Aquarius (2016) and Bacurau (2019) 

France
43rd nom | 9 wins

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Jafar Panahi
(2nd submission, 1st nom)
102 minutes
Persian

Cannes Review

Setting: Present day Tehran

Plot: Former political prisoners think a man they have captured is their former jailor/torturer. What will they do with him?

Also nominated for: Screenplay

Previous submission: The White Balloon (1995)

Other famous pictures by Panahi: The Mirror (1977), The Circle (2000), Taxi (2015), 3 Faces (2018), No Bears ()

Norway
7th nom | 0 wins

SENTIMENTAL 
VALUE
Joachim Trier
133 minutes
Norwegian & English

Cannes Review 
TIFF Review

Setting: Present day, Oslo

Plot: Two sisters lives are disrupted when her estranged auteur father returns with expectations that they'll work with him.

Also nominated for: Pic, Director, Screenplay, Actress, S' Actor, S' Actress, Editing

Previous submissions: Reprise (2006), Thelma (2017), Worst Person in the World (2021 nominee)

Other famous pictures by Trier: Oslo August 31st (2011)

Spain
22nd nom | 4 wins

SIRĀT
Oliver Laxe
(1st submission, 1st nom)
115 minutes
Spanish & French

Cannes Review

Setting: Present day, south Morocco

Plot: A father and son go searching for a missing family member who was enmeshed in the rave scene in the desert.

Also nominated for:
Sound

Previous Submissions: None

Tunisia
2nd nom | 0 wins

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
Kaouther Ben Hania
89 minutes
Arabic

ONE NOMINATION

Setting: January 29, 2024 Gaza strip

Plot: A docudrama detailing the failed humanitarian effort to get an ambulance to a 5 year old girl before she was killed by Israeli forces.

Previous Submissions by Ben Hania:  Beauty and the Dogs (2018), The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020 nominated), Four Daughters (2022, finalist)

FINALISTS: Argentina's Belen, Japan's Kokuho, Taiwan's Left-Handed Girl, and most crucially South Korea's No Other Choice all had some buzz and precursor attention to suggest they could land in the nominee list (with a little luck) but it was a wildly competitive year.

Other finalists (though they had much less buzz about actually receiving a nomination) were Iraq's The President's Cake, Germany's Sound of Falling, Switzerland's Late Shift, Jordan's All That's Left of You, Palestine's Palestine '36, and India's Homebound.

BEFORE THE FINALS: Among the films that didn't even make the finalist list, Iceland's Love That Remains, Chile's Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo and Morocco's Calle Malaga were too quickly passed over.

Most nominations for a foreign film

Emilia Perez holds the record by a huge margin with 13 nominations. The record was previously a tie between Roma (2018) and Crouching Tigerwith 10 nominations each. 

Roma went on to three wins and Crouching four but Emilia Perez didn't win its category!

Most competitive wins in the category by director

Federico Fellini won 4 Oscars for Italy: La Strada (1956), Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8 1/2 (1963) and Amarcord (1974). In fact, he won every time he was nominated within this category. Italy submitted his work three other times but Satyricon, Roma, and And the Ship Sails On were not nominated.

Most nominated country

France leads with 43 nominees (they were also given 3 honoraries before nominations began proper in 1956). Their most recent win was 33 years ago with Indochine (1992) starring Catherine Deneuve. Their drought continues...

MORE ON FRANCE & OSCAR HERE

Most winning country of all time

ITALY leads with 14 wins (3 of which were honoraries). Some of the most famous films among their winners are The Bicycle Thief (1949), 8 1/2 (1963), The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971), Cinema Paradiso (1989), and Life is Beautiful (1998). Italy has struggled since the 21st century began, though, with only 1 win  (The Great Beauty, 2013)

Most popular country with Oscar since 2000

That would be GERMANY. In the 21st century (i.e. the past 25 years) Germany has been nominated 11 times and won 3 times. And if that weren't enough they made the finals in another 5 times. In short they've been competitive in 64% of this century's Oscar races.

More details on last row of this chart

First foreign language film nominated for Best Picture

Grand Illusion (1938). But Oscar didn't start giving statues to foreign films until 11 years later and foreign films didn't get their own competitive category until 1956

Most influential snub of the past two decades

You have the horror of the snubbing of Romania's Palme d'or winner 4 Weeks, 3 Months and 2 Days (2007) to thank for the creation of the Academy's Executive Committee. Nominations immediately improved after this committee process began. That process is done but the shift in the focus of the race to critical darlings persists.

First foreign language film to win an acting Oscar

Italy's Two Women (1961) won Best Actress for Sophia Loren who was, not unimportantly, already a major star in the US. But Italy did not submit her vehicle for Foreign Film, choosing Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte instead (which was not nominatd)

First country to break through Oscar's midcentury France/Italy/Japan obsession

For the first 12 years of foreign-language film honors only France, Italy, or Japan ever won. Sweden was the first country to break up that strangehold with back to back Ingmar Bergman wins for The Virgin Spring (1960) and Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

First foreign language film to win any Oscar

Switzerland's Marie-Louise (1944) won Best Screenplay, years before the Best International Feature Film category began.

First foreign language film winner to win more than one Oscar

Japan's Gate of Hell (1954) won the Honorary for Foreign Film and also took home Costume Design.

Costume Design is the category with the most wins for foreign-language films (7 in total). Runner up is a 3-way tie of 6 wins between Original Screenplay, Original Score, and Cinematography

Only directors of foreign film nominees to go on to direct a Best Picture winner

Czech director Milos Forman for Loves of a Blonde (1965)/ Fireman's Ball (1967) + One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)/ Amadeus (1984) was the first to do it. Two Mexican filmmakers have followed suit: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Amores Perros (2000)/Biutiful (2010) + Birdman (2014) and Guillermo del Toro for Pan's Labyrinth (2006) + Shape of Water (2017)

Only Bong Joon-ho has done both simultaneously (with Parasite, 2019)

Only Best International Film winners to also win Best Director

Bong Joon-ho (Parasite for South Korea) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma for Mexico) are the only directors to accomplish this feat and both were very recent.

It's worth noting that Ang Lee (Taiwan) has won the Best Director category twice but curiously neither of those wins was connected to either a Best Picture Winner OR  a Best International Film winner. Very interesting stat for Mr. Ang Lee there, showing how often he's delivered in a major way.

Most Overall Nominations for a Best Foreign Language Film Nominee That Didn't Win Anything (Not Even This Category)

This is a three-way tie. The most recent is the French comedy Amélie (2000) which scored 5 nominations but suffered a surprise loss to Bosnia in the foreign category.

Earlier the French musical masterpiece The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and the Swedish drama classic The Emigrants (1971) both also received 5 nominations (across two years back when that was allowed due to release date issues) and lost all of their categories.

Biggest Comeback / Revenge for a Film that Was Snubbed In This Category

This answer is subjective (how to define comeback or revenge?) but the answer is probably Brazil's City of God which failed to receive a nomination in 2022 when submitted. In 2023 after its US release it scored 4 shocking nominations including Best Director. Truly no pundits or media types saw that coming that year.

Other snubees that got sweet revenge after their snub? Germany's Run Lola Run (1998/1999) became an influential art house sensation. Films like Sweden's Persona (1966) and Hong Kong's In the Mood for Love (2000/2001) now regularly make lists of the greatest films of all time.

Directors with Most Success In This Category Though *Technically* the Country Wins

special cases
Akira Kurosawa (Japan), Vittorio de Sica (Italy) Rene Clement (France)

They had Honorary wins before the category existed. Then competing films so hard to fit in this list...

4 noms / 4 wins
Federico Fellini (Italy)

4 noms / 1 win
Jose Luis Garci (Spain)
Istvan Szabo (Hungary)

4 noms / no wins
Andrjez Wajda (Poland)
Mario Monicelli (Italy)

3 noms / 3 wins
Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)

3 noms / 1 win
Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
Luis Bunuel (Spain/France)
Nikita Mikalkhov (Russia)
Francois Truffaut (France)

3 noms / no wins
Jan Troell (Sweden)
Bo Widerberg (Sweden)

too many two-time nominees to list

Stars Who've Appeared in Most Best International Feature Film Nominees

in 7 nominated films
Max Von Sydow

in 5 nominated films
Catherine Deneuve 
Marcello Mastroianni 

in 4 nominated films
Ricardo Darin
Gerard Depardieu 
Vittorio Gassman
Isabelle Huppert 
Mads Mikkelsen 
Philippie Noiret

in 3 nominated films
Fanny Ardant
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Gael Garcia Bernal 
Penelope Cruz
Trine Dyrholm
Erland Josephson
Gong Li
Sophia Loren
Tatuya Nakadai
Fernando Rey
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Liv Ullmann

Way too many actors have appeared in two nominated films to list but some still working include: Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas,  Toni Servillo, Daniel Bruhl, Benno Furman, Renate Reinsve, and Sebastian Koch

Only Best International Film Nominees to Also Compete in Best Picture

Z (1969)
The Emigrants (1971)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Crouching Tiger (2000)
Amour (2012)
Roma (2018)
Parasite (2019)
Drive My Car (2021)
All Quiet on the... (2022)
Zone of Interest (2023)
Emilia Perez
(2024)
I'm Still Here (2024)
The Secret Agent (2025, Sentimental Value (2025)

Nominated for Best Picture but NOT Submitted for  International by Their Country

Cries and Whispers (1972)
Il Postino (1995)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Nominated for Best Picture Before International Feature Existed as a Category

Grand Illusion (1938) 

Most Popular Countries w/ Oscar
(20TH CENTURY)

1. FRANCE
(30 noms | 9 wins | 3 honoraries) 

2. ITALY
(26 noms | 10 wins | 3 honoraries)

3. SPAIN
(18 noms | 3 wins)

4. SWEDEN
(12 noms | 3 wins)

5. GERMANY
(12 noms / 1 win)

6. JAPAN
(10 noms + 3 Honoraries)

7. SOVIET UNION*
(9 noms | 3 wins)

8. HUNGARY
(8 noms / 1 win)

9. POLAND 
(7 noms | 0 wins)

10. CZECHOSLOVAKIA*
(6 noms | 2 wins)

11 [tie] ISRAEL & YUGOSLAVIA*
(6 noms | 0 wins)

12. NETHERLANDS
(5 noms | 3 wins)

* country no longer exists, having split into multiple countries

Most Popular Countries w/ Oscar
(21ST CENTURY 
evolving list)
▲ arrows indicates they were in the mix this season with finals or noms

▲ 1. GERMANY
(11 noms | 3 wins | 6 finalists)

 2. DENMARK
(9 noms | 2 wins | 4 finalists)

▲ 3. FRANCE
(10 noms | 5 finalists)

4. POLAND
(6 noms | 1 win)

▲ 5. JAPAN
(5 noms | 2 wins | 2 finalists)

6. MEXICO
(5 noms | 1 win |  5 finalists)

7. CANADA
(5 noms | 1 win | 3 finalists)

8. ▲ SPAIN
(4 noms | 1 win | 3 finalists )

9. ITALY
(4 noms | 1 win | 2 finalists) 

10. ▲ARGENTINA
(4 noms | 1 win | 1 finalist)

11. SWEDEN
(4 noms | 4 finalists)

12 ▲ NORWAY
(4 noms | 3 finalists)

countries just outside this list: Austria, Iran, Israel, Russia, Belgium,

Most Popular Countries with Oscar
(ALL-TIME STATS) 

1. FRANCE
(39 noms | 9 wins | 3 honoraries | 4 finalists)

2. ITALY
(29 noms | 11 wins | 3 honoraries | 1 finalist) 

3. GERMANY
(22 noms | 4 wins | 6 finalists)

4. SPAIN
(22 noms | 4 wins | 3 finalists)

5. SWEDEN
(16 noms | 3 wins | 4 finalists)

6. DENMARK
(15 noms | 4 wins | 2 finalists)

7. JAPAN
(15 noms | 2 wins | 3 honoraries | 2 finalists)

8. POLAND
(13 noms | 1 win)

9. HUNGARY
(10 noms | 2 wins | 2 finalists)

10. ISRAEL
(10 noms | 1 finalist)
Only country with double digit noms that hasn't yet won.

11. SOVIET UNION*
(9 noms | 3 wins)

runners up: Mexico, Argentina, Belgium, Russia, Norway

*  country no longer exists, having split into multiple countries

"NEVER GIVE UP"
These Unlucky Countries (In Terms of Oscar) Have The Highest Submission Totals Without Ever Being Nominated

01. PORTUGAL (41 submissions)

02. EGYPT (39 submissions)

03. BULGARIA (36 submissions | 1 finalist)

04. PHILIPPINES (35 submissions... + 1 submission before it was an official category)

05. VENEZUELA (34 submissions | 1 finalist)

06. CROATIA (35 submissions)

07. [tie] TURKEY & THAILAND (32 submissions | 1 finalist)

09 [tie] SLOVAKIA & SLOVENIA (28 submissions Slovakia / 29 submissions Slovenia)

11 INDONESIA
(27 submissions)

12 URUGUAY (25 submissions | 1 disqualified nom)

runners up:
Bangladesh (20) Luxembourg (19), Singapore (18)

Longest Consecutive Nomination Streaks

6 YEARS

Italy (1974-1979)

5 YEARS

Italy (1956-1960)
France (1956-1960)
Italy (1962-1966)
France (1966-1970)
France (1976-1980)

4 YEARS

Germany (1956-1959)
Czechoslovakia (1965-1968)

3 YEARS

Mexico
(1960-1962)
Japan
(1963-1965)
Israel
(1971-1973)
France
(1972-1974)
Poland
(1974-1976)
Spain
(1982-1984)
France
(1985-1987)
Denmark (1987-1989)
Italy
(1989-1991)
Spain
(1997-1999)
France
(1999-2001)
Germany (2004-2006)
Israel
(2007-2009)
Germany (2022-2024)

Brazil could enter this club in a year's time for the first time -- we shall see...