2008 Nominated Films for Best Foreign Language Film
2008 DeparturesDirected by Yojiro Takita, Japan
Departures follows Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job.
2007 The Counterfeiters
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitsky, Austria
- Based on a real life counterfeiting plant was set up with prisoners in the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen.
2006 The Lives of Others
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany
- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck takes a hard look at East Germany, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, where a mind-boggling one in fifty citizens spied on the rest.
2005 Tsotsi
Directed by Gavin Hood, South Africa
- Six days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader.
2004 The Sea Inside
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, Spain
- The real-life story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who fought a 30 year campaign in favor of euthanasia and his own right to die.
2003 The Barbarian Invasions
Directed by Denys Arcand, Canada
- During his final days, a dying man is reunited with old friends, former lovers, his ex-wife, and his estranged son.
2002 Nowhere in Africa
Directed by Caroline Link, Germany
- A German Jewish refugee family moves to and adjusts to a farm life in 1930's Kenya.
2001 No Man's Land
Directed by Danis Tanovic, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Two soldiers from opposing sides in the conflict become trapped in no man's land during the Bosnia/Herzegovina conflict in 1993.
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Directed by Ang Lee, Taiwan
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Wuxia picture, a Chinese genre involving magic warriors, flying monks, and noble swordsmen. Starring Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi.
1999 All About My Mother
Directed by Pedro Almodovar, Spain
- Young Esteban want to become a writer and also to discover the identity of his father, carefully concealed by the mother Manuela in Alomodavar's masterful melodrama.
1998 Life is Beautiful
Directed by Roberto Benigni, Italy
- A Jewish man has a wonderful romance with the help of his humour, but must use that same quality to protect his son in a Nazi death camp.
1997 Character
Directed by Mike van Diem, The Netherlands
- Jacob Katadreuffe lives mute with his mother, has no contact with his father who only works against him and wants to become a lawyer, at all costs.
1996 Kolya
Directed by Jan Sverák, Czech Republic
- The perfect grouch meets his match in a five-year-old boy named Kolya in this heart-warming drama.
1995 Antonia's Line
Directed by Marleen Gorris, The Netherlands
- A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.
1994 Burnt By The Sun
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, Russia
- A moving and poignant story set against the corrupt politics of the Stalinist era.
1993 Belle Epoque
Directed by Fernando Trueba, Spain
- In 1931, a young soldier (Fernando) deserts from the army and falls into a country farm, where he is welcomed by the owner (Manolo) due to his political ideas.
1992 Indochine
Directed by Régis Wargnier, France
- Set in 1930 in French Indochina against a backdrop of political tension between the French and Vietnamese. Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Perez star.
1991 Mediterraneo
Directed by Gabriele Salvatores, Italy
- On a magical Greek island a soldier discovera that it is better to make love instead of war.
1990 Journey of Hope
Directed by Xavier Koller, Switzerland
- The story of a turkish poor family who tries to emigrate illegaly to Switzerland.
