List of submissions to the 75th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

The following 54 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 75th Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (release at the country of origin November 1, 2001 – October 31, 2002, ceremony March 2003). The bolded titles were the five nominated films.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Chad submitted films for the first time.

The announcement of the submitted films was delayed when the Academy was presented with four films that did not quite conform to the rules, as written:

• Hong Kong elected to send an action film (The Touch) that was completely in English.
• Afghanistan, which had been liberated from Taliban rule only a year before, submitted their first-ever film for consideration. The movie, about Afghan-Americans, was filmed mostly in English, but partially in Dari. When the film was shown in Afghanistan, it was entirely dubbed into Dari and it was this version that was sent to the Oscars.
• The United Kingdom sent The Warrior, a British-produced film set in India, spoken entirely in Hindi, and filmed by Asif Kapadia, a British director of Indian descent.
• Most controversially, Palestine tried to submit Divine Intervention, forcing the apolitical Academy to make a decision about whether it would accept Palestine as a country.

The film from Hong Kong was quickly eliminated, but the film from Afghanistan (whose director had been brutally murdered before post-production was finished) was accepted.

The United Kingdom was asked to submit another film since AMPAS rules stated that all films had to be in a language indigenous to the submitting country. "The Warrior" was not acceptable, AMPAS argued, because Hindi was not a language indigenous to the United Kingdom, and the film was not about, nor set among British people. Had the film been set among the Hindi-speaking community in the UK, it would have been approved. BAFTA appealed to the Academy to reconsider, but to no avail. Ironically, the film won Best British Film at the BAFTA awards the following year. Britain ended up choosing Eldra, a film in Welsh. In 2006, AMPAS changed the rules to allow countries to choose films which were not in the language of the submitting country. Canada was the first to take advantage of this new rule by submitting Water, which was also in Hindi.

AMPAS determined that Palestine was not a country, and therefore could not submit a film. They also said that there had been no "national selection committee" that chose Divine Intervention, as required by the rules. It was also unclear how the film would be released in its home country according to the rules, since Palestine had no internationally recognized boundaries. This decision was much criticized, especially since countries like Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, none of which recognized as sovereign nations by the United Nations, had been submitting movies for years. AMPAS reversed its decision the following year, and allowed Divine Intervention to compete.

The previous year's winner Bosnia & Herzegovina did not submit a film. The Islamic world was better represented in this category than any previous year on record, with ten films in competition, not including Divine Intervention.

The Brazilian submission, City of God was considered as one of the favorites, but it did not receive a nomination in the Best Foreign Film category. When the film was released the following year in the USA, it garnered nominations in four mainstream categories including Best Screenplay and Best Director. Ironically, if the film had been nominated in the Best Foreign Film category, it would have been ineligible for all the mainstream awards the following year because you cannot receive Oscar nominations in two different ceremonies.

Submissions

Submitting country	Film title used in nomination	Original title	Language(s)	Director(s)	Result
Afghanistan	FireDancer	FireDancer	Pashto, English	Jawed Wassel	Not Nominated
Algeria	Rachida	Rachida	French, Arabic	Yamina Bachir-Chouikh	Not Nominated
Argentina	Kamchatka	Kamchatka	Spanish	Marcelo Piñeyro	Not Nominated
Austria	Gebürtig	Gebürtig	German	Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik	Not Nominated
Bangladesh	The Clay Bird	মাটির ময়না	Bengali	Tareque Masud	Not Nominated
Belgium	The Son	Le Fils	French	Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne	Not Nominated
Brazil	City of God	Cidade de Deus	Portuguese	Fernando Meirelles	Not Nominated
Bulgaria	Warming Up Yesterday's Lunch	Подгряване на вчерашния обед	Bulgarian	Kostadin Bonev	Not Nominated
Canada	Un crabe dans la tête	Un crabe dans la tête	French	André Turpin	Not Nominated
Chad	Abouna	Abouna	Chadian Arabic, French	Mahamat Saleh Haroun	Not Nominated
Chile	Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui	Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui	Spanish	Alejandro Rojas	Not Nominated
China	Hero	英雄	Mandarin Chinese	Zhang Yimou	Nominated
Colombia	The Invisible Children	Los Niños invisibles	Spanish	Lisandro Duque Naranjo	Not Nominated
Croatia	Fine Dead Girls	Fine mrtve djevojke	Croatian	Dalibor Matanić	Not Nominated
Cuba	Nothing More	Nada	Spanish	Juan Carlos Cremata	Not Nominated
Czech Republic	The Wild Bees	Divoké vcely	Czech	Bohdan Sláma	Not Nominated
Denmark	Open Hearts	Elsker dig for evigt	Danish	Susanne Bier	Not Nominated
Egypt	The Secret of the Young Girl	أسرار البنات	Arabic	Magdy Ahmed Aly	Not Nominated
Finland	The Man Without a Past	Mies vailla menneisyyttä	Finnish	Aki Kaurismaki	Nominated
France	8 Femmes	8 femmes	French	François Ozon	Not Nominated
Germany	Nowhere in Africa	Nirgendwo in Afrika	German, Swahili	Caroline Link	Won Academy Award
Greece	The Only Journey of His Life	Το μόνον της ζωής του ταξείδιον	Greek	Lakis Papastathis	Not Nominated
Hong Kong	The Touch[1]	天脈傳奇	English	Peter Pau	Disqualified
Hungary	Hukkle	Hukkle	Hungarian	György Pálfi	Not Nominated
Iceland	The Sea	Hafið	Icelandic	Baltasar Kormákur	Not Nominated
India	Devdas	देवदास	Hindi	Sanjay Leela Bhansail	Not Nominated
Indonesia	Ca-bau-kan	Ca-bau-kan	Indonesian	Nia diNata	Not Nominated
Iran	I'm Taraneh, 15	من ترانه 15 سال دارم	Persian	Rasul Sadrameli	Not Nominated
Israel	Broken Wings	כנפיים שבורות	Hebrew	Nir Bergman	Not Nominated
Italy	Pinocchio	Pinocchio	Italian	Roberto Benigni	Not Nominated
Japan	Out	OUT	Japanese	Hideyuki Hirayama	Not Nominated
South Korea	Oasis	오아시스	Korean	Lee Chang-dong	Not Nominated
Lebanon	When Maryam Spoke Out	لمّا حكيت مريم	Arabic	mAssad Fouladkar	Not Nominated
Luxembourg	Petites misères	Petites misères	French	Laurent Brandenburger & Philippe Boon	Not Nominated
Mexico	The Crime of Padre Amaro	El crimen del Padre Amaro	Spanish	Carlos Carrera	Nominated
Netherlands	Zus & Zo	Zus & Zo	Dutch	Paula van der Oest	Nominated
Norway	Hold My Heart	Tyven, tyven	Norwegian	Trygve Allister Diesen	Not Nominated
Philippines	Small Voices	Mga Munting tinig	Tagalog	Gil M. Portes	Not Nominated
Poland	Edi	Edi	Polish	Piotr Trzaskalski	Not Nominated
Portugal	O Delfim	O Delfim	Portuguese	Fernando Lopes	Not Nominated
Romania	Philanthropy	Filantropica	Romanian	Nae Caranfil	Not Nominated
Russia	House of Fools	Дом дураков	Russian, Chechen	Andrei Konchalovsky	Not Nominated
Slovakia	Cruel Joys	Kruté radosti	Slovak	Juraj Nvota	Not Nominated
Slovenia	Headnoise	Zvenenje v glavi	Slovene	Andrej Košak	Not Nominated
Spain	Mondays in the Sun	Los lunes al sol	Spanish	Fernando Leon de Aranoa	Not Nominated
Sweden	Lilja 4-ever	Lilja 4-ever	Swedish, Russian	Lukas Moodysson	Not Nominated
Switzerland	Aime ton père	Aime ton père	French	Jacob Berger	Not Nominated
Taiwan	The Best of Times	美麗時光	Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese, Hakka Chinese	Chang Tso-chi	Not Nominated
Thailand	Monrak Transistor	มนต์รักทรานซิสเตอร์	Thai	Pen-ek Ratanaruang	Not Nominated
Tunisia	The Magic Box	La Boîte magique	French, Arabic	Rida Behi	Not Nominated
Turkey	9	Dokuz	Turkish	Ümit Ünal	Not Nominated
United Kingdom	Eldra[2]	Eldra	Welsh	Tim Lyn	Not Nominated
Uruguay	Corazon de Fuego	El Último tren	Spanish	Diego Arsuaga	Not Nominated
Venezuela	The Archangel's Feather	La Pluma del arcángel	Spanish	Luis Manzo	Not Nominated
Yugoslavia	Labyrinth	Лавиринт	Serbian	Miroslav Lekic	Not Nominated

Notes

References

"Record-Breaking 54 Countries in Competition for Oscar" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2002-12-02. Retrieved 2008-08-22.