Europe dominated the international feature Oscar in 2025, earning four out of five nominations — ultimately losing out to Brazil. Can the region win back the trophy in 2026?
Europe has an excellent track record in the Academy Awards’ international feature film category, landing four of the five nominations for each of the past three years. Brazil’s I’m Still Here may have taken the prize in 2025, but Europe won in 2024 with the UK’s The Zone Of Interest and in 2023 with Germany’s All Quiet On The Western Front.
In fact, European films have scooped the majority of awards in the history of the category, which was known as best foreign-language film before the 2020 awards. Of the 77 prizes handed out by the Academy to foreign-language films since 1947 (until 1957 as special/honorary awards), 59 have gone to films from Europe. European titles also dominate Bafta’s film not in the English language category: Europe has won for 15 of the past 20 years, including last year’s Emilia Pérez.
Some 38 European countries submitted to the international feature Oscar this year, with France one of the favourites, choosing Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident. The film — about a group of former political prisoners confronting the guard who they say once tortured them — was shot in exile in Iran in a mix of Farsi and Arabic. It is produced by Philippe Martin of France’s Les Films Pelléas, and is co-produced by Iran’s Jafar Panahi Film Production and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions.
It is the second time in a row that France has put forward a non-French-language film, after last year’s Spanish-language Emilia Pérez, reflecting the complex patchwork of funding, locations and talent that now goes into a European feature.
The territory will hope It Was Just An Accident breaks a three-decade barren streak in the Oscars’ international film category (it last won with Indochine in 1993). The stakes are particularly high for France: favourite Emilia Pérez won at the Baftas last year, but stumbled in the final leg of Oscar campaigning after offensive social media posts by star Karla Sofia Gascon resurfaced. Neon released It Was Just An Accident in the US in October, while Mubi is releasing in December in the UK and Ireland.
Panahi’s film picked up three nominations at the European Film Awards — a little behind the pace of Joachim Trier’s Cannes grand prix winner Sentimental Value, with eight nods in total. Norway’s Oscar entry follows two sisters who reunite with their estranged father, a once-renowned director making his comeback film. Neon releases in the US, and Mubi in the UK. Trier’s previous feature The Worst Person In The World was nominated for the international feature Oscar in 2022 — one of six nods in the category for Norway, which has yet to score a win.
Spain’s submission is Oliver Laxe’s Cannes Competition title Sirât. The film jointly won the festival’s jury prize (with Mascha Schilinski’s Sound Of Falling), and follows a father (played by Sergi Lopez) and son looking for their daughter/sister at a rave in the mountains of southern Morocco. Neon is releasing in the US, and Altitude in the UK. Spain has won the international feature Oscar four times and has been nominated 21 times, most recently with JA Bayona’s Society Of The Snow in 2024.
Sirât leads the European Film Awards nominations with nine in total, while Germany’s Oscar entry Sound Of Falling has eight. Schilinski’s drama is set across a century on a remote German farm and depicts four women who are separated by time and united by trauma. Mubi has rights in the UK, Ireland and North America. Germany has enjoyed a strong Oscar run in recent years. It last won the category in 2023 with Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front, and was nominated in 2024 for The Teachers’ Lounge and 2025 for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig.
Sweden, Ireland and the UK join France in submitting films not in their own indigenous languages. Swedish Egyptian Tarik Saleh’s Cannes and Toronto selection Eagles Of The Republic is Sweden’s entry. Fares Fares plays Egypt’s most adored actor in the Arabic-language thriller, pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities. Curzon has UK rights. Sweden has won the Oscar three times and has been nominated 16 times in total.
Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow represents the UK, following its premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year. Filmed and set in Nigeria during the country’s 1993 election crisis, My Father’s Shadow follows two young brothers exploring Lagos with their estranged father over one day. The film uses Yoruba, Naija Pidgin and English languages. Mubi has North America and UK rights. The UK has won the international feature award once — Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest in 2024 — and received nominations for Paul Turner’s Hedd Wyn in 1994 and Paul Morrison’s Solomon & Gaenor in 2000.
Reel lives
The Ukraine-Russia war is the focus of Ireland’s entry Sanatorium. The Ireland-produced, Ukrainian-language documentary is directed by Galway-born Gar O’Rourke, and premiered at CPH:DOX before winning best Irish documentary at Galway Film Fleadh. It is set in southern Ukraine, where mud treatments and electro-therapies continue at Kuyalnik sanatorium despite the war. Ireland made it as far as Oscar’s international feature shortlist of 15 last year with Kneecap, though its sole nomination to date is Colm Bairead’s The Quiet Girl in 2023.
Ukraine has also submitted a documentary: 2000 Meters To Andriivka (see page 30) is Mstyslav Chernov’s follow-up to 20 Days In Mariupol, which won the Oscar for best documentary feature in 2024, and was also on the shortlist for international feature. This time Chernov turns his lens towards Ukrainian soldiers as they attempt — at great cost — to recapture 2km of terrain and liberate a village occupied by Russia. PBS Distribution released in the US, and Dogwoof in the UK.
In total there are 12 documentaries and docudramas submitted to the international feature category, seven from Europe. Denmark’s entry is another Ukraine war-themed title: Mr Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein and Pavel ‘Pasha’ Talankin, about the patriotic education policy in a Russian primary school. The film premiered at Sundance, winning the World Cinema Documentary special jury award. Denmark was Oscar-nominated last year for The Girl With The Needle, and four Danish films have won the award, most recently Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round in 2021.
North Macedonia has put forward Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale Of Silyan, a documentary about a wounded stork and the farmer who cares for it. Kotevska has Oscar form: her film Honeyland was nominated in both the international feature and documentary feature category in 2020. National Geographic Documentary Films is releasing The Tale Of Silyan in the US.
From Bosnia & Herzegovina is Jasmila Zbanic’s documentary Blum: Masters Of Their Own Destiny, about a local energy company that thrived in post-Second World War Yugoslavia by blending elements of socialism and capitalism. Zbanic’s Quo Vadis, Aida? was nominated for the international feature Oscar in 2021, the country’s only other nod alongside its 2002 win for Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land.
Greenland makes its third-ever submission to the category with WALLS — Akinni Inuk. The doc tells the story of two women whose lives become intertwined in a new Greenland prison. It won the best Nordic documentary prize on its world premiere at CPH:DOX earlier this year, before an international premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto.
Croatia has selected International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Tiger award winner Fiume O Morte! by Igor Bezinovic. The comic docudrama depicts the retelling by locals of the 16-month occupation of the Croatian city of Rijeka — known to Italians as Fiume — when Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio declared himself leader in 1919. Croatia has yet to receive an Oscar nomination from 35 submissions.
For its part, neighbouring Slovenia has put forward Urska Djukic’s debut feature Little Trouble Girls, which had its world premiere opening the Berlinale’s Perspectives strand. The film is about an introverted 16-year-old who joins her Catholic school’s all-girls choir and experiences a sexual awakening.
Past victory
Laszlo Nemes, who won the 2016 Oscar with Holocaust drama Son Of Saul, has the opportunity to repeat that awards success. Hungary has submitted his 1950s-set coming-of-age drama Orphan, which debuted in competition at Venice. Hungary has won the Oscar category twice from 10 nominations, with Son Of Saul and in 1982 for Istvan Szabo’s Mephisto.
Poland has put forward Franz, Agnieszka Holland’s portrait of writer and literary icon Franz Kafka, which premiered this year in Toronto as a special presentation. Holland has previously been nominated in the category for Angry Harvest in 1986 and In Darkness in 2011. Newcomer Idan Weiss, who plays Kafka in the film, has just secured a best actor nomination for his role in the European Film Awards, and Franz has two additional nods in the craft categories.
Arthouse favourites Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne represent Belgium for the fifth time with Young Mothers, their drama about five teenage parents living in a residential shelter. The film premiered in Cannes Competition, winning the screenplay prize. Belgium was last nominated in 2023 for Lukas Dhont’s Close and has received seven prior nominations — but has yet to win the trophy.
Another festival favourite is Slovakia’s entry, Tereza Nvotova’s Father, which world premiered in Venice Horizons. The drama is inspired by the true story of a devoted father whose life is shattered by a single tragic mistake, pushing his marriage and will to live to the brink.
Switzerland has chosen Late Shift by Petra Volpe. The drama follows a dedicated nurse — The Teachers’ Lounge and September 5 star Leonie Benesch — on an understaffed hospital ward who is caught in a race against time. The film topped the local box office for four consecutive weeks. Switzerland has won the Oscar twice from five nominations, with Dangerous Moves (1985) and Journey Of Hope (1991), the latter being its most recent nomination.
Lithuania has also turned to a box-office hit for its submission. The Southern Chronicles is the highest-grossing Lithuanian movie of all time, selling more than 400,000 tickets in a country of 2.9 million people. The coming-of-age story follows a 17-year‐old boy falling in love in post-Soviet Lithuania. It won 12 prizes at the 2025 Lithuanian Silver Crane Awards, including best feature film and best director. It also won Tallinn Black Nights’ Baltic competition.
Italy has selected Francesco Costabile’s Familia, a premiere in Venice Horizons in 2024 and winner of the strand’s best actor prize for Francesco Gheghi. Set in Rome in the 2000s, it is the story of a son’s rebellion against an abusive father. Despite winning the category 14 times, Italy’s last prize came more than a decade ago with Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty in 2014. It secured a nod in 2024 for Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano.
The Netherlands has Sven Bresser’s Reedland, which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week. It centres on a reed cutter who finds a girl’s corpse on his land and becomes obsessed with solving the crime. The Netherlands has won the Oscar three times, with The Assault in 1987, Antonia’s Line in 1996 and Character in 1998.
Austria has also submitted a Cannes Critics’ Week entry, but from 2024. Bernhard Wenger’s Peacock revolves around the ‘rent a friend’ concept prevalent in Japan. Austria has won the Oscar twice: in 2013 for Michael Haneke’s Amour and in 2008 for Stefan Ruzowitzky’s The Counterfeiters — and has been nominated a further two times.
Romania presents Teodora Ana Mihai’s social drama-cum-heist movie Traffic, written by Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu. It premiered last year as the closing film of Warsaw Film Festival, winning the grand prix in the international competition. Romania was last nominated at the Oscars in 2021, with Alexander Nanau’s documentary Collective.
Iceland has chosen Cannes Premiere selection The Love That Remains by Hlynur Palmason, capturing a year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. This is Palmason’s third time flying the flag for Iceland, having made the Oscar shortlist in 2023 with Godland. The territory has one nomination from 44 entries: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s Children Of Nature in 1992.
Greece has pinned its hopes on Yorgos Zois’s Arcadia, a mystery about a psychologist who confronts her worst suspicions as she accompanies a once-respected doctor to identify a victim of a car accident. Arcadia debuted in the Berlinale Encounters strand in 2024. Greece has five nominations (most recently with Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth in 2011) but no wins from 44 entries.
Latvia has gone for Lauris and Raitis Abele’s Dog Of God, an animated horror about a 17th-century witch trial that finds a werewolf within a devout community. It had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year.
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