International, but With an Asterisk

The category that bestows foreign countries with an Academy Award for their cinematic achievements isn’t as international as some might expect

In April 2019, the Academy made a major change to the category formerly known as best foreign-language film. The following March, at the 92nd Academy Awards, Parasite made Oscar history when it became the first non-English film to take best picture — and the first movie to win the Oscar for the newly designated category of best international film.

The decision to rename the category was born out of the Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership and embrace the global filmmaking community. “We believe that ‘international feature film’ better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, then co-chairs of the international film committee (Weyermann died in 2021), said in a statement.

The Academy has embraced more foreignlanguage films in its competition — since Parasite’s win in 2020, the best picture category has seen international (or largely non-English) nominees Minari, Drive My Car and All Quiet on the Western Front, plus this year’s Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest — but the international category has remained, well, hardly “international,” with European productions leading the number of nominated films and winners.

The three years since Parasite’s win have seen another Asian film take the prize in Japan’s Drive My Car in 2022, while Denmark’s Another Round and Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front won in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Of the remaining 12 nominated films, eight were from Europe, two from Asia and one each from Africa and South America.

This year’s nominees follow a similar pattern: Four of the five nominated films are European, one Asian, zero from an African or Latin American country. There are two caveats: Japan’s Perfect Days was directed by three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders, a major figure in the New German Cinema movement; Italy’s Io Capitano, directed by Matteo Garrone, follows two Senegalese teenagers who migrate to the film’s country of origin and was shot largely in Senegal and Morocco. Those are nominated alongside Germany’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Spain’s Society of the Snow and the U.K.’s The Zone of Interest.

Europe’s reign over the category is not just a trend but the status quo. Ever since Federico

Fellini’s La Strada won the first competitive international Oscar in 1957, the prize has gone to a European country 57 times — a staggering total compared to the nine Asian winners, five winners from the Americas and three from Africa. Italy’s inaugural win began the country’s domination, with La Strada becoming the first of its 14 Oscar winners. France follows that total with 12. The only non-European countries to net multiple Oscar wins are Japan (five), Argentina (two) and Iran (two).

Meanwhile, all five nominees for best documentary feature are international productions. Bobi Wine: The People’s President follows the titular Ugandan rapper turned opposition leader’s presidential campaign. Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory examines the relationship between Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and his actress wife, Paulina Urrutia, as they face the challenges of Augusto’s battle with Alzheimer’s. Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters is about a Tunisian woman whose two eldest girls fled their home country to join ISIS. The National Film Board of Canada-produced To Kill a Tiger shows an Indian man fighting for justice after his daughter’s sexual assault. And Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol depicts a team of journalists caught in the Ukrainian city after Russia’s invasion of the country.

It’s ironic that the nonfiction category beats its international counterpart at global diversity. When the Academy changed the category’s name, it also allowed foreign countries to submit docs for consideration; in 2020, North Macedonia’s Honeyland became the first feature to be nominated for both awards. Since then, Romania’s Collective and Denmark’s Flee, both docs, earned international feature nominations. Tunisia’s Four Daughters and Ukraine’s 20 Days in Mariupol were their respective countries’ Oscar submissions, but failed to break into the fivenominee international feature group.

Weeks before his Oscar wins, Parasite director Bong Joon Ho won the Golden Globe for international feature — and in his acceptance speech challenged Hollywood to embrace filmmaking’s worldwide achievements: “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Academy members may no longer be blocked by subtitles, but perhaps many still need to look beyond geographical borders to discover films that represent the countries and cultures that have not yet made their marks on Oscar-recognized cinema.