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

This is a list of submissions to the 75th Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film every year since the award was created in 1956. The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.

For the 75th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must have first been released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 November 2001 and 31 October 2002. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was 1 November 2002. 56 countries submitted films, and 54 were found to be eligible by AMPAS and screened for voters. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, and Palestine submitted films for the first time; however, Palestine's film did not appear on the final list. The five nominees were announced on 11 February 2003.

Germany won the award for the second time, marking the first win since its reunification, with Nowhere in Africa by Caroline Link.

Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result FireDancer Dari, Persian, English Jawed Wassel Rachida French, Arabic Yamina Bachir-Chouikh Kamchatka Spanish Marcelo Piñeyro Gebürtig German, English, Yiddish Robert Schindel and The Clay Bird মাটির ময়না Bengali, Persian, Arabic Tareque Masud The Son Le fils French Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne City of God Cidade de Deus Brazilian Portuguese Fernando Meirelles Warming Up Yesterday's Lunch Подгряване на вчерашния обед / Подгревање на вчерашниот ручек Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian Soft Shell Man Un crabe dans la tête French, Quebec Sign Language, English André Turpin Abouna أبونا Arabic, French Mahamat Saleh Haroun Ogu and Mampato in Rapa Nui Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui Spanish, Rapa Nui Alejandro Rojas Hero 英雄 Mandarin Zhang Yimou The Invisible Children Los niños invisibles Spanish Lisandro Duque Naranjo Fine Dead Girls Fine mrtve djevojke Croatian Dalibor Matanić Nothing More Nada Spanish Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti The Wild Bees Divoké vcely Czech Bohdan Sláma Open Hearts Elsker dig for evigt Danish Susanne Bier A Girl's Secret أسرار البنات Arabic Magdy Ahmed Ali The Man Without a Past Mies vailla menneisyyttä Finnish Aki Kaurismäki 8 Women 8 femmes French François Ozon Nowhere in Africa Nirgendwo in Afrika German, English, Swahili Caroline Link The Only Journey of His Life Το Μόνον της Ζωής του Ταξείδιον Greek The Touch 天脈傳奇 English, Mandarin, Lhasa Tibetan Peter Pau Hukkle Hungarian, Czech György Pálfi The Sea Hafið Icelandic, Norwegian, English Baltasar Kormákur Devdas देवदास Hindi Sanjay Leela Bhansali A Courtesan Ca-bau-kan / 擦包看 Indonesian, Betawi, Medan Hokkien Nia Dinata I'm Taraneh, 15 من ترانه ۱۵ سال دارم Persian Rasul Sadrameli Broken Wings כנפיים שבורות Hebrew Nir Bergman Pinocchio Italian Roberto Benigni Out Japanese Hideyuki Hirayama When Maryam Spoke Out لمّا حكيت مريم Arabic Dead Man's Hand Petites misères French Laurent Brandenburger and Philippe Boon The Crime of Padre Amaro El crimen del Padre Amaro Spanish Carlos Carrera Zus & Zo Dutch, French, Portuguese Paula van der Oest Hold My Heart Tyven, tyven Norwegian Trygve Allister Diesen Divine Intervention يد إلهية Arabic, Hebrew, English Elia Suleiman Small Voices Mga Munting Tinig Tagalog, Filipino, English Gil Portes Edi Polish Piotr Trzaskalski The Dauphin O Delfim Portuguese Fernando Lopes Philanthropy Filantropica Romanian Nae Caranfil House of Fools Дом дураков Russian, Chechen Andrei Konchalovsky Cruel Joys Kruté radosti Slovak, Czech Juraj Nvota Headnoise Zvenenje v glavi Slovene Oasis 오아시스 Korean Lee Chang-dong Mondays in the Sun Los lunes al sol Spanish Fernando León de Aranoa Lilya 4-ever Lilja 4-ever Russian, Swedish, English, Polish Lukas Moodysson A Loving Father Aime ton père French, English, Swedish Jacob Berger The Best of Times 美麗時光 Taiwanese Hokkien, Mandarin, Hakka Chang Tso-chi Monrak Transistor มนต์รักทรานซิสเตอร์ Thai Pen-ek Ratanaruang The Magic Box La boîte magique French, Arabic Ridha Behi 9 Turkish Ümit Ünal Eldra Welsh, English, Welsh Romani The Last Train Corazon de fuego Spanish The Archangel's Feather La pluma del arcángel Luis Manzo Labyrinth Лавиринт Serbian, English

Notes

Afghanistan, which had been liberated from Taliban rule only a year before, submitted FireDancer by Jawed Wassel, their first-ever film for consideration. The movie, about Afghan-Americans, was filmed mostly in English, but partially in Dari and Persian. When the film was shown in Afghanistan, it was entirely dubbed into Dari and it was this version that was sent to the Oscars. At first, the Academy claimed that the submission did not quite conform to the rules, however, the film, whose director had been murdered before post-production was finished, was accepted. Brazil submitted City of God by Fernando Meirelles. It was considered one of the favorites, but was famously snubbed. When the film was released the following year in the United States, it was nominated for Best Director, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. Hong Kong submitted The Touch by Peter Pau, but it was disqualified because the dialogue was completely in English, and not in a foreign language. Palestine submitted Divine Intervention by Elia Suleiman. AMPAS denied the film's entry, as it did not recognise Palestine as a country and, therefore, could not submit a film.Doherty, Benjamin J. Abunimah, Ali. (2002). "Oscars' double standard turns Palestinian film into refugee". The Electronic Intifada. December 10. Last accessed: December 19, 2005. They said that there had been no national selection committee that chose Divine Intervention, and it was unclear how the film would be released in its home country according to the rules, since Palestine had no internationally recognized boundaries. The decision drew condemnation from Palestinian human rights groups and Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN Feda Abdelhadi Nasser.. It was also 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 United Kingdom originally submitted The Warrior by Asif Kapadia, a British-produced film set in India, spoken entirely in Hindi, and filmed by a British director of Indian descent. It was disqualified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the film did not take place in, nor was it filmed in a language indigenous to the United Kingdom. Had the film been set among the Hindi-speaking community in the United Kingdom, it would have been approved. BAFTA appealed to the Academy to reconsider, but to no avail. The United Kingdom ultimately sent Eldra by , a film in Welsh. References