Summary

• Three non-English language films make history with Best Picture nominations at the 2024 Oscars.
• Non-English language films nominated for Best Picture challenge bias against subtitles and cultural relevance.
• Best Picture nominees like "The Grand Illusion" and "Cries and Whispers" reflect the power of international cinema.

The Best Picture race at the Oscars is always exciting but 2024 is especially interesting as it contains a record-breaking three non-English language Best Picture nominees. As an American institution, the Academy Awards have long given preference to American films, while mostly leaving the acknowledgment of other countries' movies to the International Feature Film category (formerly known as the Best Foreign Language Film category). However, there are some exceptional international movies that have broken those barriers and reached Oscar voters on a bigger level.

International movies always struggle to reach American audiences in general with a bias against having to read subtitles or an unfounded idea that they won't be able to relate to the story of another culture. However, the non-English language movies that have been nominated for Best Picture serve as a reminder of the incredible work that audiences deprive themselves of seeing when they avoid international movies. While many more non-English language movies deserved recognition but never got it, these Best Picture nominees helped to expand the Oscars in important ways.

1 The Grand Illusion (1938)

French, German, English

The first non-English language film to be nominated for the Best Picture award and one of the best foreign war films, the 1937 French production The Grand Illusion analyzed the consequences of World War I with enough insight and artistic deftness to be recognized by the Academy at a time in which only English language films had received the ceremony's most prestigious nomination.

French filmmakers produced much of the most notable and innovative cinema of the twentieth century, and the Academy's recognition of The Grand Illusion helped to foster their reputation for cinematic exceptionalism. The prison escape movie is elevated by its powerful story and filmmaking as it tells the tale of two prisoners in a POW camp who make various attempts at finding freedom.

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2 Z (1969)

French, Russian, English

A 1969 French thriller movie, Z earned its Best Picture nomination by fictionalizing the assassination of a Greek political figure with a level of precision and conscientiousness that American films often lack in comparison to French productions. Americans' continued grief concerning the then-recent assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy likely heightened their interest in the material presented in Z, thus encouraging the Academy to nominate a foreign film for an award that had never been presented to a non-English language picture.

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3 The Emigrants (1971)

Swedish

While French cinema has long been the dominant non-American film market, Swedish director Jan Troell managed to secure international recognition with his 1971 film The Emigrants, starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, and Eddie Axberg. An adaptation of a series of novels, this film chronicles Swedish emigrants to the United States and notes the distinct hardships that such individuals endured during their cross-Atlantic expedition.

As the vast majority of Americans descend from immigrants, the Academy was likely more enraptured by this film than by the majority of non-English language works, and it provided the piece with high recognition as a result. Interestingly, The Emigrants is also one of the rare movies nominated for Oscars in multiple years.

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4 Cries And Whispers (1972)

Swedish

This piece by Ingmar Bergman - a legendary figure in the eyes of cinephiles and one of the most celebrated directors of all time - maintained the elevated status that Swedish cinema had enjoyed the previous year with the release of The Emigrants. Bergman's iconic writing and directing ability rendered the 1972 Swedish movie Cries and Whispers a film too polished and challenging for the Academy to overlook.

Films that provide underrepresented perspectives - such as this one, which starred three women at a time when Hollywood was overwhelmingly male-dominated - are welcomed additions to the film canon, and Cries and Whispers' recognition at the Academy Awards reaffirmed critics' appreciation of such works.

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5 Il Postino: The Postman (1994)

Italian, Spanish

The 1994 Italian film Il Postino: The Postman drew from various cultures to produce an exceptional piece that was esteemed by the Academy. The film incorporates both the Italian and Spanish languages, and its director, Michael Radford, was English - a combination of nationalities unusual in any creative setting.

The film's star, Italian actor Massimo Troisi, tragically ed away as a result of a heart attack shortly after production concluded, but his role in this film is widely regarded as a fitting capstone to his film career. Perhaps even more impressive than earning a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, Il Postino was a rare foreign language movie that was a box office hit in the US.

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6 Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Italian

Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni directed and co-wrote this World War II epic in part by drawing from his father's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. It received a level of attention and acclaim that is unusual on an international level, with many appreciating Benigni's skilled handling of incredibly dark and exceptionally sensitive subject matter.

While the topic and setting of Life Is Beautiful are specific to Europe, the themes of familial love and fear of loss are universal enough to render the film appealing and relatable to global audiences. The movie was heartbreaking but managed to be life-affirming as well. Along with the Best Picture nomination, Benigni became the first Best Actor winner for a non-English performance.

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7 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Mandarin

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - which featured stars from various nations who were all ethnically Chinese - was the first Mandarin language film to be nominated for Best Picture, and its critical reputation as one of the most culturally influential movies of the 2000s was matched by a level of commercial success that was unprecedented for a non-English language film at the time.

The film's unabashed focus on Chinese history and culture proved to be endearing to international critics and audiences rather than offputting, thus allowing many future productions that focused on diverse cultures to be funded and produced. The movie also redefined the martial arts genre with thrilling action sequences that accompanied the beautiful filmmaking and epic story.

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8 Babel (2006)

English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese

Nearly a decade before securing international prominence with the English language films Birdman and The Revenant, Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu dazzled critics with Babel, a film that featured several languages and was filmed and set in multiple countries.

The film's polished writing, direction, and acting endeared it to the Academy and garnered it a Best Picture nomination despite the language barrier that normally prevented international films from receiving the honor. Iñárritu's confidence in the material and his pride in his Mexican heritage allowed for Babel's phenomenal critical and commercial success.

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9 Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Japanese

This Clint Eastwood-directed piece, which is predominantly Japanese language and features a Japanese cast, offers that nation's perspective of the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima. Americans have historically been largely unsympathetic to the Japanese forces of the Second World War, but this film challenged those biases deftly enough that the Academy awarded the film with a nomination for Best Picture. One of cinema's greatest assets is its ability to challenge preconceived notions and alter perspectives, and the Academy believed that Letters from Iwo Jima served those functions effectively.

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10 Amour (2012)

French

Amour returned French-language films to prominence in the United States, being the first to receive a Best Picture nomination in decades. Its depiction of elderly love is relatively uncommon in popular media, and the effectiveness with which it portrayed such a relationship earned it international recognition. The Academy is often partial to powerful if largely humorless emotional sagas and French cinema's specialty in such works has occasionally garnered it high-profile recognition, with Amour's nomination at the 85th Academy Awards being one of the more notable instances.

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