Despite only three Indian movies making the cut for the Best International Feature at the Oscars, India has regularly submitted a movie for the Academy’s consideration for many years since 1957. Have a look at every Indian submission at the Oscars’ prestigious global category along with our guide to stream them all.
What is the latest movie to be submitted for the Oscars Best International Feature?
The Malayalam disaster film 2018 (based on the Kerala floods in the titular year) was submitted as India’s official pick for the category but didn’t make it to the shortlist. You can stream the critically acclaimed and commercially successful drama on Sony LIV.
In the buildup to the 2023 Oscars, the Gujarati coming-of-age drama Last Film Show was picked over audience favourite RRR (despite RRR later winning in the Best Original Song category) and made it to the official shortlist of 15 movies. However, the Gujarati movie couldn’t progress any further for the final list of five nominees. As of now, you can stream the movie on Netflix.
How many Indian movies have been nominated for Best International Feature?
While most of India’s submissions couldn’t make it to the final nomination list, three Hindi-language movies have represented the country at the Academy Awards. These include India’s first-ever submission, Mehboob Khan's endearing family drama Mother India along with Mira Nair’s urban class drama Salaam Bombay and Ashutosh Gowariker’s sports epic Lagaan.
Mother India featured Nargis Dutt as a hardworking widowed farmer who toils on the field to provide for her family and ward off oppressive landlords. Salaam Bombay was Nair’s stellar debut featuring many young non-actors portraying the hardships of orphaned children in the slums of Mumbai. As for Lagaan, the Aamir Khan-starrer was set during the British Raj and recounted a cricket match played between a village’s inhabitants and their white overlords.
How many films has India submitted to the Oscars?
When it comes to the Best International Feature category, India has submitted a total of 56 films. Considering the linguistic diversity of the nation, 34 of these films were Hindi features while ten were in Tamil and four were in Malayalam (including the latest submission, 2018). Marathi was represented with three films and followed by two each in Gujarati and Bengali. One Assamese and one Telugu movie have also been selected.
When has India not submitted to the Oscars?
Since its notable first try with 1957’s Mother India, the Indian decision making body Film Federation of India (FFI) has occasionally strayed away from not sending a submission to the Academy up to the year 1984. From then onwards, the FFI has always sent an annual submission barring the year 2003 when it decided that no Indian film will be able to compete with submissions from other countries. Unsurprisingly, the decision was met with controversy among the Indian filmmaking community and the FFI has continued to submit movies every year.
Where can you stream Indian Best International Feature submissions?
Many of the recent submissions are available to watch on popular OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, Jio Cinema and ZEE5. Most of the older classics are available to watch on the same platforms along with Mubi, Shemaroo, Sun NXT, Hoichoi and more.
