The Oscars Fixed Best International Feature! Or … Did They?

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The Oscars’ Best International Feature category has always had a few frustrating rules. Each country can only submit one film, which means great movies sometimes get overlooked if a country has several strong contenders in a single year – recently, France chose Les Misérables over the highly acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire, much to the dismay of many film fans. There’s also the issue of films critical of their home country’s government. Often, countries with strict regimes avoid submitting these films, leading to unusual situations like an Iranian film, Seed of the Sacred Fig, being submitted by Germany. The whole system felt outdated, but thankfully, new rules were announced on May 1st to broaden what kinds of films can qualify. A welcome change, right?

Whether a film qualifies for the Best International Feature Film isn’t always straightforward. While countries submit films for consideration, a movie can also qualify by winning a major award at one of a select group of international film festivals. These include prestigious prizes like the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and the Golden Lion at Venice. This creates a second path to nomination, as seen with Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Palme d’Or but wasn’t selected by its own country. It also means a single country could theoretically have multiple films nominated. While unlikely, it would be interesting to see! This rule could also encourage film festivals to recognize important but potentially controversial films that a country might ignore. This makes the recent claims by organizers at the Berlin International Film Festival that their festival isn’t political seem a bit disingenuous. Ultimately, like many Academy decisions, this new rule could be a great success, a complicated mess, or a bit of both.

The rules have been updated in a few ways, some practical and others a bit amusing. One change concerns the Best Original Song category: submissions for songs played after the credits now need to include the final 15 seconds of the movie itself. Basically, they’re telling filmmakers to stop just submitting the credits when showcasing these songs! They want audiences to remember the song playing during those final moments. This rule seems to be a response to things like Miley Cyrus’s song at the end of Avatar: Fire and Ash, and it will be interesting to see how it applies to the potential Taylor Swift song in the next Toy Story film next year.

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2026-05-02 00:54