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

This is a list of submissions to the 61st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States. The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country.
For the 61st Academy Awards, thirty-one films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Soviet film, Commissar, was filmed in 1967, but was banned for twenty years. The five nominated films came from Belgium, Hungary, India, Spain and Denmark.
Denmark won the award for the second time in a row with Pelle the Conqueror by Bille August, which was also nominated for Best Actor (Max von Sydow).

## Submissions

| Submitting country | Film title used in nomination | Original title | Language(s) | Director(s) | Result |
| Argentina | The Debt | La deuda interna | Spanish | Miguel Pereira | Not nominated |
| Austria | Undiscovered Country | Das Weite Land | German | Luc Bondy | Not nominated |
| Belgium | The Music Teacher | Le Maître de musique | French | Gérard Corbiau | Nominated |
| Brazil | The Story of Fausta | Romance da Empregada | Brazilian Portuguese | Bruno Barreto | Not nominated |
| Bulgaria | Where Do We Go? | За къде пътувате? | Bulgarian | Rangel Vulchanov | Not nominated |
| Canada | The Revolving Doors | Les portes tournantes | French | Francis Mankiewicz | Not nominated |
| China | Red Sorghum | 红高粱 | Mandarin | Zhang Yimou | Not nominated |
| Cuba | Letters from the Park | Cartas del parque | Spanish | Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Not nominated |
| Denmark | Pelle the Conqueror | Pelle erobreren | Scanian, Danish, Swedish | Bille August | Won Academy Award |
| Dominican Republic | One Way Ticket | Un Pasaje de Ida | Spanish | Agliberto Meléndez | Not nominated |
| France | The Reader | La Lectrice | French | Michel Deville | Not nominated |
| West Germany | Yasemin | Yasemin | German | Hark Bohm | Not nominated |
| Greece | In the Shadow of Fear | Στη σκιά του τρόμου | Greek | Giorgos Karypidis | Not nominated |
| Hungary | Hanussen | Hanussen | Hungarian, German | István Szabó | Nominated |
| Iceland | In the Shadow of the Raven | Í skugga hrafnsins | Icelandic, German | Hrafn Gunnlaugsson | Not nominated |
| India | Salaam Bombay! | सलाम बॉम्बे | Hindi | Mira Nair | Nominated |
| Israel | The Summer of Aviya | הקיץ של אביה | Hebrew, Yiddish | Eli Cohen | Not nominated |
| Italy | The Legend of the Holy Drinker | La Leggenda del santo bevitore | Italian | Ermanno Olmi | Not nominated |
| Japan | Hope and Pain | ダウンタウン・ヒーローズ | Japanese | Yoji Yamada | Not nominated |
| Mexico | The Last Tunnel | El último túnel | Spanish | Servando González | Not nominated |
| Netherlands | The Vanishing | Spoorloos | Dutch, French, English | George Sluizer | Disqualified |
| Nicaragua | The Ghost of War | El espectro de la guerra | Spanish | Ramiro Lacayo-Deshon | Not nominated |
| Norway | The Ice Palace | Is-slottet | Norwegian | Per Blom | Not nominated |
| Peru | The Mouth of the Wolf | La boca del lobo | Spanish | Francisco José Lombardi | Not nominated |
| Poland | A Short Film About Love | Krótki film o milosci | Polish | Krzysztof Kieślowski | Not nominated |
| Portugal | Hard Times | Tempos Difíceis | Portuguese | João Botelho | Not nominated |
| Puerto Rico | Tango Bar | Tango Bar | Spanish | Marcos Zurinaga | Not nominated |
| Soviet Union | Commissar | Комиссар | Russian | Aleksandr Askoldov | Not nominated |
| Spain | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios | Spanish | Pedro Almodóvar | Nominated |
| Switzerland | La Méridienne | La Méridienne | French | Jean-François Amiguet | Not nominated |
| Taiwan | My Mother's Teahouse | 春秋茶室 | Mandarin | Chen Kunhou | Not nominated |
| Yugoslavia | My Uncle's Legacy | Život sa stricem | Serbo-Croatian | Krsto Papić | Not nominated |