List of submissions to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of submissions to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. 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 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. Nine shortlisted contenders were revealed a week before the announcement of the Oscar nominations.
The deadline for all countries to send in their submissions was 3 October 2011. The submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 October 2010 and 30 September 2011.
On 13 October, AMPAS announced that 63 countries had been accepted to participate in the competition for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, including a first-time submission from New Zealand.
On 18 January 2012 the nine shortlisted entries were announced. Six days later, the five nominees were announced. The Iranian entry, A Separation, was announced as the winner at the 84th Academy Awards on 26 February 2012.
Submissions
| Submitting country | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Language | Director | Result |
| Amnesty | Amnistia | Albanian | Bujar Alimani | ||
| Aballay | Aballay, el hombre sin miedo | Spanish | Fernando Spiner | ||
| Breathing | Atmen | German | Karl Markovics | ||
| Bullhead | Rundskop | Dutch, French, Limburgish | Michaël R. Roskam | ||
| Belvedere | Belvedere | Bosnian | Ahmed Imamović | ||
| ' | Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora É Outro | Portuguese | José Padilha | ||
| Tilt | Тилт | Bulgarian | Viktor Chouchkov | ||
| Monsieur Lazhar | Monsieur Lazhar | French | Philippe Falardeau | ||
| Violeta Went to Heaven | Violeta se fue a los cielos | Spanish | Andrés Wood | ||
| The Flowers of War | 金陵十三釵 | Mandarin, English | Zhang Yimou | ||
| The Colors of the Mountain | Los colores de la montaña | Spanish | Carlos César Arbeláez | ||
| 72 Days | Sedamdeset i dva dana | Croatian | Danilo Šerbedžija | ||
| Havanastation | Habanastation | Spanish | Ian Padrón | ||
| Alois Nebel | Alois Nebel | Czech | Tomás Lunák | ||
| SuperClásico | SuperClásico | Danish, Spanish | Ole Christian Madsen | ||
| Love Child | La hija natural | Spanish | Leticia Tonos | ||
| Lust | الشوق | Arabic | Khaled El Hagar | ||
| Letters to Angel | Kirjad Inglile | Estonian | Sulev Keedus | ||
| Le Havre | Le Havre | French | Aki Kaurismäki | ||
| Declaration of War | La guerre est déclarée | French | Valérie Donzelli | ||
| Chantrapas | შანტრაპა | French, Georgian | Otar Iosseliani | ||
| Pina | Pina – Tanzt, tanzt sonst sind wir verloren | German | Wim Wenders | ||
| Attenberg | Attenberg | Greek | Athina Rachel Tsangari | ||
| A Simple Life | 桃姐 | Cantonese | Ann Hui | ||
| The Turin Horse | A Torinói ló | Hungarian | Béla Tarr | ||
| Volcano | Eldfjall | Icelandic | Rúnar Rúnarsson | ||
| Abu, Son of Adam | ആദാമിന്റെ മകൻ അബു | Malayalam | Salim Ahamed | ||
| Under the Protection of Ka'Bah | Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah | Indonesian | Hanny Saputra | ||
| A Separation | جدایی نادر از سیمین | Persian | Asghar Farhadi | ||
| As If I Am Not There | As If I Am Not There | Serbo-Croatian | Juanita Wilson | ||
| Footnote | הערת שוליים | Hebrew | Joseph Cedar | ||
| Terraferma | Terraferma | Italian | Emanuele Crialese | ||
| Postcard | 一枚のハガキ | Japanese | Kaneto Shindō | ||
| Returning to the 'A | Возвращение в «А» | Russian | Egor Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky | ||
| Where Do We Go Now? | وهلّأ لوين؟ | Arabic | Nadine Labaki | ||
| Back to Your Arms | Kai apkabinsiu tave | Lithuanian, Russian, German | Kristijonas Vildžiūnas | ||
 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia | Punk is Not Dead | Панкот не е мртов | Macedonian, Albanian | Vladimir Blazevski | |
| Miss Bala | Miss Bala | Spanish | Gerardo Naranjo | ||
| Omar Killed Me | Omar m'a tuer | French, Arabic | Roschdy Zem | ||
| Sonny Boy | Sonny Boy | Dutch | Maria Peters | ||
| The Orator | O Le Tulafale | Samoan | Tusi Tamasese | ||
| Happy, Happy | Sykt lykkelig | Norwegian | Anne Sewitsky | ||
| October | Octubre | Spanish | Daniel Vega Vidal | ||
| The Woman in the Septic Tank | Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank | Tagalog | Marlon Rivera | ||
| In Darkness | W ciemności | Polish, German, Yiddish, Ukrainian | Agnieszka Holland | ||
| José and Pilar | José e Pilar | Portuguese | Miguel Gonçalves Mendes | ||
| America | America | Spanish | Sonia Fritz | ||
| Morgen | Morgen | Romanian, Hungarian, Turkish | Marian Crisan | ||
| Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel | Утомлённые солнцем 2: Цитадель | Russian | Nikita Mikhalkov | ||
| Montevideo, God Bless You! | Монтевидео, Бог те видео | Serbian | Dragan Bjelogrlić | ||
| Tatsumi | Tatsumi | Japanese | Eric Khoo | ||
| Gypsy | Cigán | Slovak, Romany | Martin Šulík | ||
| Silent Sonata | Circus Fantasticus | No dialogue | Janez Burger | ||
| Beauty | Skoonheid | Afrikaans, English | Oliver Hermanus | ||
| The Front Line | 고지전 | Korean | Jang Hoon | ||
| Black Bread | Pa negre | Catalan | Agustí Villaronga | ||
| Beyond | Svinalängorna | Swedish, Finnish | Pernilla August | ||
| Summer Games | Giochi d'estate | Italian | Rolando Colla | ||
| Seediq Bale | 賽德克．巴萊 / Seediq Bale | Seediq, Japanese, Taiwanese, Mandarin | Wei Te-sheng | ||
| Kon Khon | คนโขน | Thai | Sarunyu Wongkrachang | ||
| Once Upon a Time in Anatolia | Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da | Turkish | Nuri Bilge Ceylan | ||
| Patagonia | Patagonia | Welsh, Spanish | Marc Evans | ||
| The Silent House | La casa muda | Spanish | Gustavo Hernández | ||
| The Rumble of the Stones | El rumor de las piedras | Spanish | Alejandro Bellame Palacios | ||
| The Prince and the Pagoda Boy | Khát vọng Thăng Long'' | Vietnamese | Lưu Trọng Ninh |
Other countries
- Luxembourg announced that they had no eligible films, and would not be participating in the competition this year.
- Ukraine announced that they had convened an Oscar selection committee, but decided that no Ukrainian film met all the AMPAS requirements, meaning that they did not submit a film for the third year in a row.
Controversies and changes
- Albania originally submitted The Forgiveness of Blood, but it was rejected due to protest of Bujar Alimani, the director of Amnesty. He argued that The Forgiveness of Blood shouldn't be eligible to represent Albania due to its American director, Joshua Marston, and key American crew members. AMPAS disqualified it and Albania instead submitted Alimani's film.
- The Dominican Republic's submission was initially rejected because of the country's failure to submit the names of its selection committee members on time, but they appealed and won.
- Puerto Rico, which had been invited to participate in the Foreign Oscar race since 1986, tried to submit a film but was rejected, because of a new rule that doesn't allow films from US territories to compete in the Foreign Language Film category. The Puerto Rico Film Commission, which selects the Puerto Rican Oscar nominee, appealed to AMPAS to change its mind, citing its previous Oscar nomination in the category and the presence of non-independent territories like Greenland, Hong Kong and Palestine, but AMPAS refused to change its mind.
- The Slovenian entry Silent Sonata was disqualified because the Society of Slovene filmmakers neglected to officially submit the entry in time because of a misunderstanding within the organization. Therefore, it wasn't included in the final list of entries.