Costa Rica submitted a film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the first time in 2005. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since.
As of 2026, Costa Rica has submitted fifteen films, but none of them were nominated.
Submissions The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1956. The International Feature Film Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award.
All submissions are primarily in Spanish. Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Costa Rica for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.
Year(Ceremony) Film title used in nomination Original title Director(s) Result 2005(78th) Caribe Esteban Ramírez 2010(83rd) Of Love and Other Demons Del amor y otros demonios 2014(87th) Red Princesses Princesas rojas Laura Astorga 2015(88th) Presos Esteban Ramírez 2016(89th) About Us Entonces nosotros Hernán Jiménez 2017(90th) The Sound of Things El sonido de las cosas Ariel Escalante 2018(91st) Medea Alexandra Latishev Salazar 2019(92nd) The Awakening of the Ants El despertar de las hormigas Antonella Sudasassi 2020(93rd) Land of Ashes Ceniza negra Sofía Quirós Ubeda 2021(94th) Clara Sola Nathalie Álvarez Mesén 2022(95th) Domingo and the Mist Domingo y la niebla Ariel Escalante 2023(96th) I Have Electric Dreams Tengo sueños eléctricos Valentina Maurel 2024(97th) Memories of a Burning Body Memorias de un cuerpo que arde Antonella Sudasassi 2025(98th) The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener El monaguillo, el cura y el jardinero Juan Manuel Fernández 2026(99th) If We Don't Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche Kim Torres
See also List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best International Feature Film List of Academy Award-winning foreign language films
Notes
References
External links The Official Academy Awards Database The Motion Picture Credits Database IMDb Academy Awards Page