Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film

The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the awards presented at the Golden Globes, an American film awards ceremony.

Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film could be honoured. In 1987, it was changed to Best Foreign Language Film, so that non-American English-language films are now considered for the Best Motion Picture awards. Additionally, this change makes American films primarily in another language eligible for this award, including recent winner Letters from Iwo Jima and nominees Apocalypto, The Kite Runner, and In the Land of Blood and Honey.

Note that since the 1987 change in the criteria for this award, its eligibility criteria have been considerably broader than those for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. American films have never been eligible for this award, and even non-U.S. films had to have principal dialogue in a native (non-English) language of the submitting country until 2006.

Before 1974, the award was given only infrequently, and with several films being jointly honoured per year.

The most honored country in this category is United Kingdom, with seven films honored. The most honoured countries after 1987 are Spain and France.

Like the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this award does not require that an eligible film be released in the United States. The official rules for the award state that submitted films must be at least 70 minutes in length and have at least 51% of their dialogue in a language other than English, and that they be "first released in their country of origin during the 14-months period from November 1 to December 31, prior to the Awards". Films that were not released in their country of origin due to censorship qualify with a one-week release in the U.S. during the specified period.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), presenter of the Golden Globes, also does not limit the number of submitted films from a given country. This differs from the practice of the Academy Awards' presenter, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which limits each country to one submission per year.

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