Top Ten Foreign Oscar Winners

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Top Ten Foreign Oscar Winners List

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a very polarizing category for me. The foreign language instead of just all foreign cinema inclusion bothers me, and simply the category has featured so many underserved winners over the years, especially during the earlier decades. Still, there have been enough truly excellent films in this category. This is a list of ten best, most deserving winners in my opinion.

10. Nights of Cabiria

Nights of Cabiria has its problems mainly the problematic ending and Masina’s frequent overacting, but this is mostly an engaging and well-crafted work filled with such a nice tone to it, fine cinematography, mostly good acting, evident heart and some really powerful, moving sequences. It is a flawed, but still quite a good movie that is easily the director’s finest work.

9. A Fantastic Woman

A Fantastic Woman did prove to be a difficult watch, but a necessary one for sure. I was so pleasantly surprised that this wonderful, important film dealing with the problems that transgender people face on a regular basis was honored with an Oscar. It’s very emotional and powered by one truly fantastic performance from striking Daniela Vega.

8. All About My Mother

Being probably the most famous Almodovar film (but not the best, that title goes to ‘Talk to Her’), All About My Mother is populated with so many wonderful, rich characters who are all superbly developed. The themes are also varied as is the film’s tone, and it’s technically speaking a beautiful film. It’s also intricately plotted and simply very memorable as a whole.

7. The Official Story

This wonderfully directed and acted film features such a complex, interesting central character. This is a very serious, difficult to watch film which explores a particularly painful chapter in Argentine history with a lot of care, emotion and a thankful emphasis on intimacy and characterization instead of more ambitious politics. It’s one of three truly great 80s winners.

6. In a Better World

Though overly ambitious for sure, In a Better World is still a highly underappreciated film that benefits from great performances, well developed characters and superb themes greatly explored. It’s a very dark drama that is not an easy watch, but it’s sophisticated and emotionally quite powerful. It entirely deserved its Oscar that year.

5. Cinema Paradiso

Simultaneously epic and intimate, Cinema Paradiso is also populated with so many unforgettable sequences. It’s one of the ultimate love letters to the power of cinema, its attention to detail is staggering while its heart is always in the right place. This is the type of heartwarming movie that earned its emotion unlike another winner ‘Life Is Beautiful’.

4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

As the only truly great 2000s winner, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an epic, highly cinematic film that benefits from beautiful costumes, fun action scenes, a fantastic score and great direction from Ang Lee. The characters are so deep and complex that they are the standouts for sure. It’s ultimately one of the essential wuxia films, and a much deserved Best Picture nominee.

3. The Salesman

The Salesman is the type of drama film that I simply adore. It presents to us the audience one very precise situation, but it deals with it meticulously and from multiple levels. It is a thematically intriguing, emotionally unnerving and highly engaging Iranian film that is also superbly acted and unforgettable in its final prolonged sequence. It holds its power with every passing year for me as it’s that masterful.

2. Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander is an incredibly immersive, artistic and cold Bergman film, but with warmth and consistent entertainment value too as it manages to hold your attention completely how intriguingly plotted it is. It’s a deep, thematically complex and beautifully shot period piece that is without a doubt the director’s magnum opus as well as one of the best foreign films of the eighties.

1. A Separation

Asghar Farhadi ended up topping not only the 2010s decade list, but the all-time list too. A Separation is simply the quintessential film about divorce in the history of cinema. It is a complex film that portrays life as it truly is – messy and complicated – without ever resorting to easy answers. It’s immensely touching in that final scene that is unforgettable and heartbreaking. This is truly one of the best films of this entire decade as well as one of the greatest examples of just how magnificent Iranian and Asian cinema in general is.

Honorable Mentions:

Mephisto – Mephisto deals with a familiar subject matter in a new and refreshing manner with interesting dialogue and themes well explored. It’s quite an authentic, underrated film.

Black Orpheus – Thanks to its colorful imagery and an infectious energy, Black Orpheus is one unique, unforgettable mix of Greek mythology and modern Brazil.

The Shop on Main Street – This is one of the better war dramas out there, mostly benefiting from that powerful, very emotional third act.

No Man’s Land – No Man’s Land took me by surprise. I expected biased storytelling, but the end result is the opposite – it’s an honest war parable that takes no sides and is very eye-opening in what it has to say.

Roma – Roma is style over substance, but what style this is. The stark black-and-white cinematography is stunning and the film simply has that wonderful classic cinema feel to it.