‘Anatomy Of A Fall’ & ‘The Zone Of Interest’ Make Oscar History As Academy Reveals Most International Best Picture Selection Ever

The Academy has confirmed to Deadline that this is the first time two international foreign-language movies have been nominated for Best Picture in the same year and the first time that two foreign-language movies have received five Oscar nominations apiece in the same year.

Justine Triet’s contemporary courtroom thriller Anatomy Of A Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s innovative holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest lead the international charge today. The former is a French-language French production, while the latter is a German-language international co-production (with some key U.S. backing).

The two features, which both debuted at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, nabbed five Oscar noms each this morning, including showings in Best Director and their respective screenplay categories: adapted for Glazer and original for Triet and her co-writer Arthur Harari.

The two films also appeared in Best Picture. When you factor in fellow Best Picture contender Past Lives, which is in English and Korean, this year’s best picture category is the most international ever.

Other foreign-language films to score nominations today include Spanish-language Society Of The Snow, which achieved multiple nods, and Pablo Larrain’s El Conde, while four of this year’s five Best Documentary contenders are international films and all of them have international subjects.

The success of international movies this year speaks to the growing trend of foreign-language movies performing well at major U.S. awards ceremonies. Korean hit Parasite became the first foreign-language movie ever to win the Best Picture Oscar in 2020, while movies such as All Quiet On The Western Front and Drive My Car have also had success in recent years.

Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest and Celine Song’s Past Lives were all also made squarely outside the major studio system in a boon for independent cinema.

In 2006, there were Best Picture Oscar nominations for Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima. However, the former starred Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and English was the main language, among others. Both were U.S. studio-backed projects.