Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film

The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is an accolade given during the annual Golden Globe Award ceremony presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film was introduced by HFPA in 1948 to honor best non-American film. The Laurence Olivier directed and starring British film Hamlet, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play bearing same name, won the Best Foreign Film award in 1949. The following year, the Italian neorealist drama Bicycle Thieves bagged the award. In 1957, the Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film was created as a separate category from Best Foreign Film. For several years foreign films were awarded in two categories, namely Best Foreign Film (English Language) and Best Foreign Film (Foreign Language). In 1973, the award for Best English-Language Foreign Film was discontinued. On several occasions, more than one film has won the Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film award in a year. These include Genevieve (UK), Twenty-Four Eyes (Japan), The Lady of the Camelias (Argentina) and No Way Back (West Germany) winning in 1955; and The Virgin Spring (Sweden) and The Truth (France) winning in 1961.

In 1987 the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film was rechristened as Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for making non-American English-language films eligible to qualify for the Best Motion Picture awards and for including American films made mainly in non-English language in the Best Foreign Language Film category. For instance Clint Eastwood’s Japanese-language American war film Letters from Iwo Jima got nominated and won the Best Foreign Language Film award in 2007. The UK tops the chart as the country that has earned most awards in this category with seven. Since 1987, France and Spain has emerged as the most honored countries in the category.

HFPA rules stipulate that a film to become eligible for nomination in this category, considering its duration to be at least seventy minutes, must have a minimum of 51% of its dialogue in a non-English language. It must be released first in its country of origin any time during the 14-months period from November 1 of one year to December 31 of the following year, before the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. The rules does not require screening of a film in the US for it to become eligible for this category, however in case a film fails to release in its country of origin because of censorship issue it can still qualify for nomination in the category by having a week’s release in the US during the stipulated time period. HFPA also allows a country to submit multiple films in this category in a year, contrary to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that permits a country to submit only one film a year for the corresponding Academy Award category.

Six films of legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman has won the award namely Wild Strawberries in 1960, The Virgin Spring in 1961, Scenes from a Marriage in 1975, Face to Face in 1977, Autumn Sonata in 1979 and Fanny and Alexander in 1984, thus setting a record win for the ace filmmaker in the category. He is followed by Italian film director Vittorio De Sica, and French film director Claude Lelouch; three films of each have been honored with the accolade.

List of Winners - Golden Globes Best Foreign Film

Best Foreign Film

Best Foreign Language Film