Non-English Films Shatter Records at This Year’s Oscars
with Historic Five Wins

The Oscars Go Global: Non-English Films Secure Record-Breaking Wins
Across Categories

A groundbreaking moment at this year’s Oscars as non-English-language films set a new record, securing five awards, an unprecedented achievement in the history of the Academy Awards.

The prestigious Best Screenplay Award was captured by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for their French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” joining the ranks of former non-English winners such as “Parasite” by Bong Joon-ho, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Talk To Her,” and “A Man and a Woman” by Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven.

Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a German-language film focusing on the Holocaust, received the Best Sound Award, marking a historic win for non-English films in this category and also took home the award for Best International Feature Film.

“The Boy and the Heron,” gaining the Best Animation Oscar, signified another triumph for Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, who had previously won in 2002 with “Spirited Away.” Miyazaki remains the only director awarded in this category for non-English animation, despite the consistent nomination of foreign language titles each year.

The documentary “20 Days In Mariupol” by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov brought attention to the Russian-Ukrainian-English documentary landscape, winning Best Documentary. This year, four out of the five Best Documentary nominees were international films, reflecting a global perspective, although non-English documentaries seldom win the top honor. Past winners in this genre include “World Without Sun” by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and “March of the Penguins” by Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau.

Making history, “Godzilla Minus One” by Japanese director Takashi Yamazaki became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, propelling Japanese film company Toho to lead Deadline’s distributors chart, especially significant as it also distributed Miyazaki’s winning animation.

The nominations phase had already highlighted a strong showing for non-English-language productions, with “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest” securing nods for both Best Film and Best Director. Further enhancing the international flavor of this year’s nominations, films like the Spanish-language “Society of the Snow,” “Robot Dreams,” and Pablo Larrain’s “El Conde” also received acknowledgment outside the international category, rounding out an exceptional year for global cinema at the Oscars.