This is a list of submissions to the 76th 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 76th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must have first been released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 November 2002 and 30 September 2003. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was 1 October 2003. 56 countries submitted films and were found to be eligible by AMPAS and screened for voters. Mongolia and Sri Lanka submitted films for the first time, and Palestine resubmitted its film disqualified from last year's list. The five nominees were announced on 27 January 2004.
Canada won the award for the first time with The Barbarian Invasions by Denys Arcand, which was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Osama أسامة Dari, Pashto, English, French, Arabic Siddiq Barmak Valentín Spanish Alejandro Agresti Vodka Lemon Վոդկա լիմոն Armenian, Northern Kurdish, Russian, French Hiner Saleem Free Radicals Böse Zellen Viennese German Barbara Albert Sea of Silence Verder dan de maan Dutch Stijn Coninx Sexual Dependency Dependencia sexual Spanish, English, Brazilian Portuguese Rodrigo Bellott Fuse Gori vatra Bosnian, Serbian, English Pjer Žalica Carandiru Brazilian Portuguese Héctor Babenco Journey to Jerusalem Пътуване към Йерусалим Bulgarian Ivan Nitchev The Barbarian Invasions Les Invasions barbares French, English Denys Arcand The Debutantes Los debutantes Spanish Warriors of Heaven and Earth 天地英雄 Mandarin, Japanese He Ping The First Night La primera noche Spanish Witnesses Svjedoci Croatian Vinko Brešan Havana Suite Suite Habana No dialogue Fernando Pérez Želary Czech, Russian, German, English Ondřej Trojan Reconstruction Danish, Swedish Christoffer Boe Sleepless Nights سهر الليالى Arabic Elina: As If I Wasn't There Elina - Som om jag inte fanns / Näkymätön Elina Meänkieli, Swedish Klaus Härö Bon Voyage French, German, English, Italian Jean-Paul Rappeneau Good Bye, Lenin! German Wolfgang Becker Think It Over Θα το Μετανιώσεις Greek Katerina Evangelakou Infernal Affairs 無間道 Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Thai Andrew Lau and Alan Mak Forest Rengeteg Hungarian Benedek Fliegauf Noi the Albino Nói albinói Icelandic, French Dagur Kári The Stringless Violin Biola Tak Berdawai Indonesian Sekar Ayu Asmara Deep Breath نفس عمیق Persian Parviz Shahbazi Nina's Tragedies האסונות של נינה Hebrew Savi Gabizon I'm Not Scared Io non ho paura Italian Gabriele Salvatores The Twilight Samurai たそがれ清兵衛 Yoji Yamada The Kite Le cerf-volant / طيّارة من ورق Arabic, Hebrew Randa Chahal I Always Wanted to Be a Saint J'ai toujours voulu être une sainte French Geneviève Mersch Aro Tolbukhin Aro Tolbukhin: en la mente del asesino Spanish, Hungarian, Catalan Isaac Pierre Racine, Lydia Zimmermann, and Agustí Villaronga The Story of the Weeping Camel Ингэний нулимс Khalkha Mongolian Byambasuren Davaa and Muna Madan मुनामदन Nepali Gyanendra Deuja Twin Sisters De Tweeling Dutch, German Ben Sombogaart Kitchen Stories Salmer fra kjøkkenet Norwegian, Swedish Bent Hamer Divine Intervention يد إلهية Arabic, Hebrew, English Elia Suleiman Paper Dove Paloma de papel Spanish The '70s Dekada '70 Tagalog, Filipino, English Chito S. Roño Pornography Pornografia Polish Jan Jakub Kolski A Talking Picture Um Filme Falado Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek, English Manoel de Oliveira The Return Возвращение Russian Andrei Zvyagintsev The Professional Професионалац Serbian Dušan Kovačević King of Thieves König der Diebe German, Ukrainian Ivan Fíla Spare Parts Rezervni deli Slovene, Croatian, English Damjan Kozole Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring 봄, 여름, 가을, 겨울 그리고 봄 Korean Kim Ki-duk Soldiers of Salamina Soldados de Salamina Spanish, Catalan, French David Trueba Evil Ondskan Swedish Mikael Håfström Mansion by the Lake වෑකන්ද වලව්ව Sinhala Lester James Peries Goodbye, Dragon Inn 不散 Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Japanese Tsai Ming-Liang Last Life in the Universe เรื่องรัก น้อยนิด มหาศาล Thai, Japanese, English Pen-ek Ratanaruang Distant Uzak Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan Mamay Мамай Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar Oles Sanin Seawards Journey El viaje hacia el mar Spanish Sangrador Leonardo Henríquez
Notes
Armenia submitted Vodka Lemon by Huner Saleem, but it was not originally accepted by the Academy, who said that Armenia had not proven that they had creative control over the film. The film was later accepted and screened alongside all the other films. The Film Federation of India announced that their selection committee had been unable to find a suitable film to send to the Oscars and so declined to send an entry. This left India out of the race for the first time in over a decade. Palestine submitted Divine Intervention by Elia Suleiman the year before. However AMPAS ruled that Palestine was not a country and had no recognized Film Board. The Academy subsequently changed its mind saying that although Palestine was not a recognized country, they would make an exception" in the interests of inclusiveness.
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