Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film

Every year since its inception, the Japanese Academy has recognized an outstanding foreign film. [cite web
url = http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/allprize.html
title = 歴代受賞者・受賞作品
publisher = 日本アカデミー賞公式サイト
language = Japanese
date =
accessdate = 200８-0６-１１ ] It should be noted that the year that any given film is nominated is not, however based on the film's domestic release date but rather on the date it is released in Japan. As delays of over four months are not uncommon, many films are nominated in Japan the following year after their release to the Japanese market (i.e. Million Dollar Baby won the American Academy Award for Best Picture for films made in 2004, but the Japanese award, based on its localized release date, is for 2005). In fact, not one of the five films nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture had been released in Japan by February 15th, 2008, the date of the Japan Academy Prize Ceremony. Although the most recent recipient of this award, Letters from Iwo Jima, a film almost entirely in Japanese would not seem to meet the qualification of a "Foreign Language Film", the actual Japanese title of the award, 最優秀外国作品賞 makes no mention of language. It would be more accurately translated as "Best Foreign Production". Regardless, the fact that the film was released on December 9, 2006 in Japan should still technically have made it ineligible.

*2007 - "Letters from Iwo Jima"
**"Dreamgirls"
**"Babel"
**"Hairspray"
**"The Bourne Ultimatum"

*2006 - "Flags of Our Fathers"
**"Crash"
**"Hotel Rwanda"
**""
**"The Da Vinci Code"

*2005 - "Million Dollar Baby"
**"Cinderella Man"
**"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
**"The Phantom of the Opera"
**""

*2004 - The Last Samurai"
**""
**"Mystic River"
**"Seabiscuit"
**"Troy"

*2003 - "The Pianist"
**"Chicago"
**"The Hours"
**""
**"Yeopgijeogin geunyeo"

*2002 - "Monster's Ball"
**"Gangs of New York"
**"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
**"I Am Sam"
**""

*2001 - "Billy Elliot"
**""
**"Chocolat"
**"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
**"Postmen in the Mountains"

*2000 - "Dancer in the Dark"
**"American Beauty"
**"Gladiator"
**"The Green Mile"
**"Swiri"

*1999 - "The Sixth Sense"
**"Elizabeth"
**"The Matrix"
**"Shakespeare in Love"
**"La Vita è bella"

*1998 - "L.A. Confidential"
**"Armageddon"
**"As Good as It Gets"
**"Good Will Hunting"
**"Saving Private Ryan"

*1997 - Titanic"
**"The English Patient"
**"Shine"
**"Air Force One"
**"Seven Years in Tibet "

*1996 - "Il Postino"
**"Independence Day"
**""
**"Se7en"
**"Twelve Monkeys"

*1995 - The Shawshank Redemption"
**"Apollo 13"
**"The Bridges of Madison County"
**"Forrest Gump"
**"Léon"

*1994 - "Schindler's List"
**"The Piano"
**"Pulp Fiction"
**"Speed"
**"True Lies"

*1993 - Jurassic Park
**"Cliffhanger"
**"The Fugitive"
**Heaven & Earth
**Unforgiven

*1992 - "JFK "
**"The Lover"
**"Basic Instinct"
**"The Bodyguard"
**"A League of Their Own"

*1991 - "Dances with Wolves"
**"Awakenings"
**"Nikita"
**"The Silence of the Lambs"
**""

*1990 - Field of Dreams
*1989 - Die Hard
*1988 - The Last Emperor
*1987 - Platoon
*1986 - Back to the Future
*1985 - Amadeus
*1984 - Once Upon a Time in America
*1983 - An Officer and a Gentleman
*1982 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
*1981 - Die Blechtrommel
*1980 - Kramer vs. Kramer
*1979 - The Deer Hunter
*1978 - Conversation Piece
*1977 - Rocky

References