List of submissions to the 86th 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.
For the 86th Academy Awards, which were held on 2 March 2014, the submitted films must be first released theatrically in their respective countries for seven consecutive days between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013. The deadline for submissions was 1 October 2013, with The Academy announcing a list of eligible films later that month. Seventy-six countries submitted a film for consideration in the category before the deadline, Moldova and Saudi Arabia are first-time entrants, alongside Montenegro submitting for the first time as an independent country. Pakistan submitted a film for the first time in 50 years.
Nine finalists were announced in December 2013, which were shortlisted in January, with the final five nominees announced on 16 January 2014. The winner of the 86th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Italy's The Great Beauty, which was directed by Paolo Sorrentino.
Submissions
| Submitting country | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Language | Director | Result |
| Wajma | وژمه | Dari | Barmak Akram | ||
| Agon | Agon | Albanian, Greek | Robert Budina | ||
| The German Doctor | Wakolda | Spanish, German, Hebrew | Lucía Puenzo | ||
| The Rocket | The Rocket | Lao | Kim Mordaunt | ||
| The Wall | Die Wand | German | Julian Pölsler | ||
| Steppe Man | Çölçü | Azerbaijani | Shamil Aliyev | ||
| Television | টেলিভিশন | Bengali | Mostofa Sarwar Farooki | ||
| The Broken Circle Breakdown | The Broken Circle Breakdown | Dutch | Felix Van Groeningen | ||
| An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker | Epizoda u životu berača željeza | Bosnian, Romany | Danis Tanović | ||
| Neighboring Sounds | O Som ao Redor | Portuguese, Mandarin, English | Kleber Mendonça Filho | ||
| The Colour of the Chameleon | Цветът на Хамелеона | Bulgarian | Emil Hristov | ||
| The Missing Picture | L'image manquante | French | Rithy Panh | ||
| Gabrielle | Gabrielle | French | Louise Archambault | ||
| GriGris | GriGris | French, Arabic | Mahamat Saleh Haroun | ||
| Gloria | Gloria | Spanish | Sebastián Lelio | ||
| Back to 1942 | 一九四二 | Mandarin, English | Feng Xiaogang | ||
| La Playa DC | La Playa DC | Spanish | Juan Andrés Arango | ||
| Halima's Path | Halimin put | Bosnian | Arsen Anton Ostojić | ||
| The Don Juans | Donšajni | Czech | Jiří Menzel | ||
| The Hunt | Jagten | Danish | Thomas Vinterberg | ||
| Who's the Boss? | ¿Quién Manda? | Spanish | Ronni Castillo | ||
| Porcelain Horse | Mejor No Hablar | Spanish | Javier Andrade | ||
| Winter of Discontent | الشتا إللى فات | Arabic | Ibrahim El Batout | ||
| Free Range | Free Range: Ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest | Estonian | Veiko Õunpuu | ||
| Disciple | Lärjungen | Swedish | Ulrika Bengts | ||
| Renoir | Renoir | French | Gilles Bourdos | ||
| In Bloom | გრძელი ნათელი დღეები | Georgian | Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß | ||
| Two Lives | Zwei Leben | German | Georg Maas | ||
| Boy Eating the Bird's Food | Το Αγόρι Τρώει το Φαγητό του Πουλιού | Greek | Ektoras Lygizos | ||
| The Grandmaster | 一代宗師 | Cantonese, Mandarin | Wong Kar-wai | ||
| The Notebook | A nagy füzet | Hungarian | János Szász | ||
| Of Horses and Men | Hross í oss | Icelandic | Benedikt Erlingsson | ||
| The Good Road | The Good Road | Gujarati | Gyan Correa | ||
| Sang Kiai | Sang Kiai | Indonesian, Japanese | Rako Prijanto | ||
| The Past | گذشته | French, Persian | Asghar Farhadi | ||
| Bethlehem | בית לחם | Hebrew, Arabic | Yuval Adler | ||
| The Great Beauty | La grande bellezza | Italian | Paolo Sorrentino | ||
| The Great Passage | 舟を編む | Japanese | Yuya Ishii | ||
| The Old Man | Шал | Russian, Kazakh | Ermek Tursunov | ||
| Mother, I Love You | Mammu, es tevi mīlu | Latvian | Jānis Nords | ||
| Blind Intersections | قصة ثواني | Arabic | Lara Saba | ||
| Conversations on Serious Topics | Pokalbiai rimtomis temomis | Lithuanian | Giedrė Beinoriūtė | ||
| Blind Spot | Doudege Wénkel | Luxembourgish, French | Christophe Wagner | ||
| Heli | Heli | Spanish | Amat Escalante | ||
| All God's Children | Toti Copiii Domnului | Romanian, Italian | Adrian Popovici | ||
| ' | As pik - loša sudbina | Serbo-Croatian | Draško Đurović | ||
| Horses of God | يا خيل الله | Arabic | Nabil Ayouch | ||
| ' | सुनगाभा | Nepali | Subarna Thapa | ||
| Borgman | Borgman | Dutch | Alex van Warmerdam | ||
| White Lies | Tuakiri Huna | Maori | Dana Rotberg | ||
| I Am Yours | Jeg er din | Norwegian, Urdu, Swedish | Iram Haq | ||
| Zinda Bhaag | زندہ بھاگ | Punjabi | Meenu Gaur, Farjad Nabi | ||
| Omar | عمر | Arabic | Hany Abu-Assad | ||
| The Cleaner | El limpiador | Spanish | Adrián Saba | ||
| Transit | Transit | Filipino, Tagalog, Hebrew, English | Hannah Espia | ||
| Walesa. Man of Hope | Wałęsa. Człowiek z nadziei | Polish | Andrzej Wajda | ||
| Lines of Wellington | Linhas de Wellington | Portuguese, French, English | Valeria Sarmiento | ||
| Child's Pose | Poziţia Copilului | Romanian | Călin Peter Netzer | ||
| Stalingrad | Сталинград | Russian | Fedor Bondarchuk | ||
| Wadjda | وجدة | Arabic | Haifaa al-Mansour | ||
| Circles | Кругови | Serbian | Srdan Golubović | ||
| Ilo Ilo | 爸妈不在家 | Mandarin, Hokkien, Filipino, Tagalog, English | Anthony Chen | ||
| My Dog Killer | Môj pes Killer | Slovak | Mira Fornay | ||
| Class Enemy | Razredni sovražnik | Slovene | Rok Biček | ||
| Four Corners | Four Corners | Afrikaans, Tsotsitaal | Ian Gabriel | ||
| Juvenile Offender | 범죄소년 | Korean | Kang Yi-kwan | ||
| 15 Years and One Day | 15 años y un día | Spanish | Gracia Querejeta | ||
| Eat Sleep Die | Äta sova dö | Swedish, Croatian | Gabriela Pichler | ||
| More than Honey | More than Honey | German, Mandarin, English | Markus Imhoof | ||
| Soul | 失魂 | Mandarin | Chung Mong-Hong | ||
| Countdown | เคาท์ดาวน์ | Thai, English | Nattawut Poonpiriya | ||
| The Butterfly's Dream | Kelebeğin Rüyası | Turkish | Yılmaz Erdoğan | ||
| Paradjanov | Параджанов | Ukrainian | Serge Avedikian, Olena Fetisova | ||
| Metro Manila | Metro Manila | Filipino, Tagalog | Sean Ellis | ||
| Anina | Anina | Spanish | Alfredo Soderguit | ||
| Breach in the Silence | Brecha en el silencio | Spanish | Luis Rodríguez, Andrés Rodríguez |
Changes
The Czech Republic initially selected the cinematic version of Agnieszka Holland's television mini-series Burning Bush. AMPAS disqualified the film, citing regulations that the film must not have initially appeared on television. The mini-series aired on Czech TV eight months prior to the re-edited version that appeared in cinemas.Lebanon initially selected Amin Dora's Ghadi in a two-way race over Lara Saba's Blind Intersections. When the film's release date was moved from 26 September 2013 to 31 October 2013, it no longer met the eligibility dates and Blind Intersections became the official submission from Lebanon. However, Ghadi' became Lebanon's submission the following year.
Other countries
Macedonia's Association of Filmmakers had two candidates: Balkan Is Not Dead and The Piano Room, but it could not recommend either film for submission. In a statement they said "According to the topics treated and the way that they are shown in both films, the commission considers they are not appropriate to be nominated" and "In addition, the committee unanimously decided this year not to any film."Vietnam's Ministry of Culture assembled an official selection committee and launched an open call for entries. However, on 19 September 2013, the National Cinema Department announced they had no films that are eligible to compete. The only film that applied to represent the country, Thiên Mệnh Anh Hùng was released too early to qualify.