This is a list of submissions to the 81st 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 81st Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must have first been released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 October 2007 and 30 September 2008. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was 1 October 2008. 67 countries submitted films and were found to be eligible by AMPAS and screened for voters. Jordan submitted a film for the first time, while Latvia made a submission for the first time since 1992. After the 9-film shortlist was announced on 13 January 2009, the five nominees were announced on 22 January 2009.
Japan won the award for the fourth time with Departures by Yōjirō Takita, marking its first competitive win after three Honorary Awards since 1956.
Submissions Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result Opium War جنگ تریاک Dari, English The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider Smutek paní Šnajderové / Trishtimi i zonjës Shnajder Czech, Slovak, Albanian Eno and Piro Milkani Masquerades مسخرة Arabic, French Lion's Den Leonera Spanish, French Revanche German, Russian, Qala Azerbaijani Aha! আহা! Bengali Eldorado French Snow Snijeg Bosnian, English Last Stop 174 Última Parada 174 Brazilian Portuguese Zift Дзифт Bulgarian The Necessities of Life Ce qu'il faut pour vivre / Inuujjutiksaq French, Inuktitut Tony Manero Spanish Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008 筑梦 Mandarin, English Jun Gu Dog Eat Dog Perro come perro Spanish No One's Son Ničiji sin Croatian, Serbian The Karamazovs Karamazovi Czech, Polish Worlds Apart To verdener Danish The Island الجزيرة Arabic I Was Here Mina olin siin. Esimene arest Estonian The Home of Dark Butterflies Tummien perhosten koti Finnish The Class Entre les murs French, Bambara Mediator მედიატორი Georgian, German, Russian, English The Baader Meinhof Complex Der Baader Meinhof Komplex German, English, French, Swedish, Arabic Διόρθωση Greek, Albanian Thanos Anastopoulos Painted Skin 畫皮 Mandarin Iska's Journey Iszka utazása Hungarian, Romanian White Night Wedding Brúðguminn Icelandic Like Stars on Earth तारे ज़मीन पर Hindi The Song of Sparrows آواز گنجشکها Persian, Azerbaijani Waltz with Bashir ואלס עם באשיר Hebrew, Arabic, German, English Gomorrah Gomorra Neapolitan, Italian, Mandarin, French Departures おくりびと Japanese Captain Abu Raed كابتن أبو رائد Arabic, English, French Amin Matalqa Tulpan Тюльпан Kazakh, Russian Тенгри Kyrgyz, Russian Defenders of Riga Rīgas sargi Latvian, Russian, German, French Under the Bombs تحت القصف Arabic, French Loss Nereikalingi žmonės Lithuanian, English Māris Martinsons Nuits d'Arabie French, Luxembourgish, Arabic Macedonia Јас сум од Титов Велес Macedonian Teona Strugar Mitevska Tear This Heart Out Arráncame la vida Spanish Goodbye Mothers وداعا أمهات French, Arabic Dunya and Desie Dunya en Desie in Marokko Dutch, Arabic O' Horten Norwegian Salt of this Sea ملح هذا البحر Arabic, English, Hebrew Ploning Cuyonon, Filipino, Tagalog, Taiwanese Hokkien Dante Nico Garcia Tricks Sztuczki Polish, Italian Our Beloved Month of August Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto Portuguese, English, French The Rest is Silence Restul e tăcere Romanian, French Mermaid Русалка Russian The Tour Турнеја Serbian My Magic மை மேஜிக் Tamil, Singaporean Hokkien, English, Malay Blind Loves Slepé lásky Slovak Rooster's Breakfast Petelinji zajtrk Slovene Jerusalema Tsotsitaal, Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Setswana Ralph Ziman Crossing 크로싱 Korean, Mandarin, Mongolian, German, English Kim Tae-kyun The Blind Sunflowers Los girasoles ciegos Spanish Everlasting Moments Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick Swedish, Finnish Jan Troell Der Freund Swiss German Cape No. 7 海角七號 Taiwanese Hokkien, Japanese, Mandarin, Hakka, English Wei Te-sheng Love of Siam รักแห่งสยาม Thai, Mandarin Chookiat Sakveerakul Three Monkeys Üç Maymun Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ілюзія страху Ukrainian, Russian Hope Eternal Bemba, Swahili, Afrikaans, Welsh, French, German, English Matar a todos Spanish Esteban Schroeder The Color of Fame El tinte de la fama Alejandro Bellame
Notes South Korea's selection was highly controversial when its submission, Crossing by Kim Tae-kyun, was initially in question when it was accused of plagiarism by a rival writer. The Korean Film Council said it would select another submission if Crossing was found guilty, but the case was ultimately dismissed and the film was retained. Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched an open call for films to represent the country, but only received one entry: by . On September 29, the Ministry decided not to send any film since Black Forest did not meet Oscar requirements to have run one consecutive week in a commercial cinema. Bolivia and Puerto Rico, formally announced at the end of September that they would not be participating in this year's competition. References General
Specific
External links Official website of the Academy Awards