# List of Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

Canada has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1971. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since. The process of choosing the submission is administered by Telefilm Canada.
As of 2025, seven Canadian films have been nominated, including one win. Of these films, three have been directed by Denys Arcand: Jesus of Montreal, nominated at the 62nd Academy Awards; The Decline of the American Empire, nominated at the 59th Academy Awards; and its sequel, The Barbarian Invasions, which was the winner at the 76th Academy Awards. Arcand's Days of Darkness was shortlisted for the Oscar, but was not nominated. The other four Canadian directors to have their films nominated are Deepa Mehta for Water at the 79th Academy Awards, Denis Villeneuve for Incendies at the 83rd Academy Awards, Philippe Falardeau for Monsieur Lazhar at the 84th Academy Awards, and Kim Nguyen for War Witch at the 85th Academy Awards.
Of the 47 films selected to date as Canada's submission to the Academy Awards, 18 of them have also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture.

## Submissions

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award.
Most of the submissions were Québécois films shot in French, with six exceptions: A Bullet in the Head's fictional language (1991), Atanarjuat in Inuktitut (2001), Water in Hindi (2005), Eternal Spring in Mandarin (2022), Rojek in Kurdish (2023) and Universal Language in Persian (2024).
Other French-language submissions have also featured a substantial amount of Inuktitut (The Necessities of Life), Lingala (War Witch), Yiddish (Felix and Meira), and Mohawk and Algonquin (Hochelaga, Land of Souls).
For the 93rd Academy Awards, Canada's original submission was Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy, but the film was disqualified in December 2020 for containing too much dialogue in English.
Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by Canada for review by the academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony.
| Year (Ceremony) | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Language(s) | Director | Result |
| 1971 (44th) | Mon oncle Antoine | Mon oncle Antoine | French | Claude Jutra | Not nominated |
| 1972 (45th) | The True Nature of Bernadette | La Vraie Nature de Bernadette | French | Gilles Carle | Not nominated |
| 1975 (48th) | Orders | Les Ordres | French | Michel Brault | Not nominated |
| 1977 (50th) | J.A. Martin Photographer | J.A. Martin photographe | French | Jean Beaudin | Not nominated |
| 1979 (52nd) | A Scream from Silence | Mourir à tue-tête | French | Anne Claire Poirier | Not nominated |
| 1980 (53rd) | Good Riddance | Les Bons débarras | French | Francis Mankiewicz | Not nominated |
| 1981 (54th) | The Plouffe Family | Les Plouffe | French, English | Gilles Carle | Not nominated |
| 1982 (55th) | Wild Flowers | Les fleurs sauvages | French | Jean Pierre Lefebvre | Not nominated |
| 1983 (56th) | The Tin Flute | Bonheur d'occasion | French | Claude Fournier | Not nominated |
| 1984 (57th) | Sonatine | Sonatine | French | Micheline Lanctôt | Not nominated |
| 1985 (58th) | Jacques and November | Jacques et novembre | French | François Bouvier and Jean Beaudry | Not nominated |
| 1986 (59th) | The Decline of the American Empire | Le Déclin de l'empire américain | French, English | Denys Arcand | Nominated |
| 1987 (60th) | Night Zoo | Un zoo la nuit | French | Jean-Claude Lauzon | Not nominated |
| 1988 (61st) | The Revolving Doors | Les portes tournantes | French | Francis Mankiewicz | Not nominated |
| 1989 (62nd) | Jesus of Montreal | Jésus de Montréal | French, English | Denys Arcand | Nominated |
| 1990 (63rd) | An Imaginary Tale | Une histoire inventée | French | André Forcier | Not nominated |
| 1991 (64th) | A Bullet in the Head | A Bullet in the Head | Fictional language | Attila Bertalan | Not nominated |
| 1992 (65th) | Léolo | Léolo | French | Jean-Claude Lauzon | Not nominated |
| 1993 (66th) | The Sex of the Stars | Le sexe des étoiles | French | Paule Baillargeon | Not nominated |
| 1994 (67th) | My Friend Max | Mon Amie Max | French | Michel Brault | Not nominated |
| 1995 (68th) | The Confessional | Le Confessional | French | Robert Lepage | Not nominated |
| 1996 (69th) | Not Me! | Sous-Sol | French | Pierre Gang | Not nominated |
| 1997 (70th) | Cosmos | Cosmos | French | Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin, Denis Villeneuve | Not nominated |
| 1998 (71st) | August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 Août sur Terre | French, English | Denis Villeneuve | Not nominated |
| 1999 (72nd) | Set Me Free | Emporte-moi | French | Léa Pool | Not nominated |
| 2000 (73rd) | Maelström | Maelström | French | Denis Villeneuve | Not nominated |
| 2001 (74th) | Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner | Atanarjuat | Inuktitut | Zacharias Kunuk | Not nominated |
| 2002 (75th) | Un crabe dans la tête | Un crabe dans la tête | French | André Turpin | Not nominated |
| 2003 (76th) | The Barbarian Invasions | Les Invasions barbares | French, English | Denys Arcand | Won Academy Award |
| 2004 (77th) | Far Side of the Moon | La face cachée de la lune | French | Robert Lepage | Not nominated |
| 2005 (78th) | C.R.A.Z.Y. | C.R.A.Z.Y. | French | Jean-Marc Vallée | Not nominated |
| 2006 (79th) | Water | Water | Hindi, English | Deepa Mehta | Nominated |
| 2007 (80th) | Days of Darkness | L'Âge des ténèbres | French | Denys Arcand | Made shortlist |
| 2008 (81st) | The Necessities of Life | Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, Inuujjutiksaq | French, Inuktitut | Benoît Pilon | Made shortlist |
| 2009 (82nd) | I Killed My Mother | J'ai tué ma mère | French | Xavier Dolan | Not nominated |
| 2010 (83rd) | Incendies | Incendies | French, Arabic | Denis Villeneuve | Nominated |
| 2011 (84th) | Monsieur Lazhar | Monsieur Lazhar | French, Arabic | Philippe Falardeau | Nominated |
| 2012 (85th) | War Witch | Rebelle | French, Lingala | Kim Nguyen | Nominated |
| 2013 (86th) | Gabrielle | Gabrielle | French | Louise Archambault | Not nominated |
| 2014 (87th) | Mommy | Mommy | French | Xavier Dolan | Not nominated |
| 2015 (88th) | Felix and Meira | Félix et Meira | French, Yiddish, English | Maxime Giroux | Not nominated |
| 2016 (89th) | It's Only the End of the World | Juste la fin du monde | French | Xavier Dolan | Made shortlist |
| 2017 (90th) | Hochelaga, Land of Souls | Hochelaga terre des âmes | French, English, Mohawk, Algonquin | François Girard | Not nominated |
| 2018 (91st) | Family First | Chien de garde | French | Sophie Dupuis | Not nominated |
| 2019 (92nd) | Antigone | Antigone | French, English, Arabic | Sophie Deraspe | Not nominated |
| 2020 (93rd) | 14 Days, 12 Nights | 14 jours, 12 nuits | French | Jean-Philippe Duval | Not nominated |
| 2021 (94th) | Drunken Birds | Les Oiseaux ivres | French, Spanish | Ivan Grbovic | Not nominated |
| 2022 (95th) | Eternal Spring | 長春 | Mandarin, English | Jason Loftus | Not nominated |
| 2023 (96th) | Rojek | Rojek | Kurdish, English, Arabic, French, German | Zaynê Akyol | Not nominated |
| 2024 (97th) | Universal Language | Une langue universelle / آواز بوقلمون | French, Persian | Matthew Rankin | Made shortlist |