Will a foreign language film win a record number of Oscars this year?

Jacob Sarkisian
·5 min read
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This year, we have two foreign language films competing for the night’s top prize at the Academy Awards this Sunday: “The Zone of Interest” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” Both are nominated for Best Picture, both have bids for Best Director (Jonathan Glazer and Justine Triet, respectively), and both, coincidentally, star Sandra Hüller. However, only UK-produced, German-spoken “The Zone of Interest” is nominated for Best International Feature Film as French-produced and French-spoken (among other languages) “Anatomy of a Fall” wasn’t chosen as France’s entry for this category in what was a political and misguided choice from France.

Both of these pictures have the potential to win four Oscars, thus tying the record of most Academy Awards taken home by a foreign language picture. Four films have pulled off grand slam: “Fanny and Alexander” in 1984, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in 2001, “Parasite” in 2020, and “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 2023. Here’s the breakdown of what they won.

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“Fanny and Alexander”

  • Best Foreign Language Film

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Art Direction

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”

  • Best Foreign Language Film

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Original Score

  • Best Art Direction

*”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” also holds the record for most nominations by a foreign language film along with 2019’s “Roma.” They both amassed 10 nominations.

“Parasite”

  • Best Picture — Bong Joon-ho and Kwak Sin-ae

  • Best Director — Bong Joon-ho

  • Best Original Screenplay — Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won

  • Best International Feature Film

“All Quiet on the Western Front”

  • Best International Feature Film

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Original Score

  • Best Production Design

These four films have a lot of overlap between them in terms of the awards they won. “Fanny and Alexander,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” all won for production design and cinematography while “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” both won for their music. Those two movies won the exact same four Oscars (the category names were tweaked a little is all).

“Parasite” is the outlier here, winning three above-the-line Oscars. That proves how brilliant the film was and how much Oscar voters loved it. But, back to this year’s contenders. Here’s a quick breakdown of the nominations for both “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”

“Anatomy of a Fall” — 5 nominations

  • Best Picture — Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion

  • Best Director — Justine Triet

  • Best Actress — Sandra Hüller

  • Best Original Screenplay — Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

  • Best Editing

We are predicting that “Anatomy of a Fall” will win just one of these nominations: Best Original Screenplay. Best Director looks to be out of Triet’s reach but a shock Best Actress win doesn’t seem off the cards. Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) and Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) have split the precursors between them so there is room for someone to take advantage of that if they also split the Oscar vote. Hüller looks to be the most likely to do that. Equally, the respected film could rank highly on a preferential ballot. If “Oppenheimer” goes the way of “La La Land” and loses Best Picture in an upset, “Anatomy of a Fall” would be one of the most likely to be the “Moonlight”-style victor. Best Editing looks to be out of the question — that belongs to “Oppenheimer.” So, there’s one guaranteed win and a couple of hopefuls. But it doesn’t look like this French film can match the record. On to “The Zone of Interest.”

“The Zone of Interest” — 5 nominations

  • Best Picture — James Wilson

  • Best Director — Jonathan Glazer

  • Best Adapted Screenplay — Jonathan Glazer

  • Best International Feature Film

  • Best Sound

We think that “The Zone of Interest” is a lock to win Best International Feature Film while it’s also got a great chance at winning Best Sound. “Oppenheimer” is top of our Oscars odds chart for that category but “The Zone of Interest” won Best Sound at the BAFTAs and we think it will be a close call. That could be two Oscar wins. Best Adapted Screenplay looks a little tougher. “American Fiction” (Cord Jefferson) is the favorite to win this award at the moment after winning this category at both the Critics Choice Awards and BAFTAs while “Oppenheimer” (Christopher Nolan) and “Barbie” (Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach) could also win. Meanwhile, Best Picture and Best Director are likely completely out of the question. Best Director belongs to Nolan (“Oppenheimer”) while this film won’t place that highly on a preferential ballot as it’s a little more divisive due to its style. So, one or two Oscar wins, but that’s it.

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