Foreign Language Films and the Oscar

The Academy Awards—that yearly Hollywood bash that brings together the glamour and glitz of the international film industry—is highly revered yet has been minimally explored beyond the category of Best Picture. Over the last decade, more than 2,000 films have been submitted for the title of Best Foreign Language Film. Of those, 312—including Italy’s 8 ½, Sweden’s Through a Glass Darkly and Mexico’s Pan’s Labyrinth, as well as Denmark’s lesser-known Harry and the Butler, Yugoslavia’s I Even Met Happy Gypsies and Nicaragua’s Alsino and the Condor—have received nominations.
This guide lists each nominee—from the first-honored Shoeshine in 1948 through Iran’s second Oscar winner, The Salesman, in 2017—chronologically and includes synopses, basic facts about personnel and production qualities, and rankings among annual competitors that often differ from those of the Academy.

Michael S. Barrett is a former overseas correspondent and magazine editor and author. Since he was 16 attending auteur film houses in Seattle, and later in New York, Brussels, London and Paris, he has amassed a monumental archive of foreign-language films. He lives in Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

Michael S. Barrett
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 225
Bibliographic Info: 82 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7420-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3275-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
The Honorable Years: 1948–1956  7
Making Waves: 1957–1967  15
New Realities: 1968–1973  50
In the Doldrums: 1974–1986  70
Fabulous Flicks: 1987–2000  111
Political Perspectives: 2001–2017  154
Index  207