Belgium has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1967. 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. The "Best Foreign Language Film" category 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. Between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented a non-competitive Honorary Award for the best foreign language films released in the United States.