What was the first foreign film to win an Oscar?

Answer 1

Several actors (male and female) have won acting Oscars for foreign language performances, but not all of those performances were part of a foreign film, so the first female actor to win an acting Oscar for a foreign-language film was Sophia Loren, and the first male actor was Roberto Benigni.

1. Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Best Actress for her Italian-language performance in Two Women (1961).
2. Robert De Niro won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his Italian-language performance in The Godfather Part II(1974). The film was produced in the United States and contains primarily English dialogue.
3. Marlee Matlin won the Oscar for Best Actress for her American Sign Language performance in Children of a Lesser God(1986). The film was produced in the United States and contains primarily English dialogue, and although American Sign Language is definitely a language, but it might not be foreign.
4. Roberto Benigni won the Oscar for Best Actor for his Italian-language performance in Life Is Beautiful(1998).
5. Benicio del Toro won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his Spanish-language performance in Traffic (2000). The film was produced in the United States and contains primarily English dialogue.
6. Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Actress for her French-language performance in La Vie en Rose (2007).
7. Penélope Cruz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her Spanish-language performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona(2008). The film was produced in the United States and contains primarily English dialogue.

Answer 2

The criteria for entering a film for consideration as the Best Foreign Language film of the year are a bit strange. Not only does the film have to be mostly in a language other than English, but it has to be from a country other than the United States, and the language has to be a national language. So Mel Gibson's Passion was not eligible in this category because it was an American film in an archaic language. Likewise only Canadian films in French were eligible in this category. The rules were changed at one point to allow modern languages which were not majority languages.

In addition, the award goes to the COUNTRY rather than the filmmaker, which is very different than the other Academy Awards.

Canada has been nominated four times, but it has only won one (1) Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film.

2003 (76th) The Barbarian Invasions Les Invasions barbares - Directed by: Denys Arcand - French (some parts in English)

Other nominations include:

1986 (59th) The Decline of the American Empire Le Déclin de l'empire américain Directed by: Denys Arcand - French

1989 (62nd) Jesus of Montreal Jésus de Montréal Directed by: Denys Arcand - French

2006 (79th) Water Water वाटर Directed by: Deepa Mehta - Hindi

Answer 3

Mother India (directed by Mehboob Khan) was the first Indian movie to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, in 1958, it lost to Federico Fellini's Nights in Cabiria.

It is a Indian classic movie to this day.

Answer 4

The Virgin Spring won the Oscar for Foreign Language Film in 1960.

Answer 5

Italy's La Strada.