List of submissions to the 61st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

The following 31 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 61st Academy Awards in the category "Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film". The bolded titles were the five nominated films, which came from Belgium, Denmark (winner), Hungary, India and Spain.

The Dutch submission, the thriller The Vanishing, was disqualified by the Oscar committee. AMPAS complained that less than 50% of the dialogue in the film was in Dutch, and that French was the majority language. Although the film was made by the Netherlands with a French-Dutch filmmaker and a mixed cast (mostly Dutch), AMPAS deemed that the film was not suitable to represent the Netherlands. The Netherlands declined to send another film, leaving them unrepresented for the first time since 1972.

The Soviet film was filmed in 1967, but was banned for twenty years.

References

*cite journal
last = Harmetz
first = Aljean
authorlink = Aljean Harmetz
title = Nomination Intricacies For Foreign-Film Oscar
journal = The New York Times
date = 21 February 1989
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE0DA1239F932A15751C0A96F948260
accessdate = 2008-09-02