In a clear sign of the growing international makeup of the Academy, Oscar voters made history on Thursday morning by nominating four performances from international films in the acting categories. That’s the most ever, surpassing the three international acting nominees both last year and in 1976.
By international film, we are referring to a movie financed and produced outside of the United States that is entirely or predominantly in a language other than English.
This year, a performance from an international feature was nominated in every one of the four acting categories. It marks the first time for such an occurrence. And each of the individual nominees is history-making all on their own.
Renate Reinsve, the star of Norway’s “Sentimental Value” is the first lead actress nominated for a Norwegian-language movie, while her co-star Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who plays her sister, is the first supporting actress nominated for a Norwegian-language film. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann received two nominations in the 1970s, but both were for films in Swedish.
Not to be outdone, Stellan Skarsgård made even bigger history. The legendary Swedish actor appears as a neglectful father in “Sentimental Value” and is the first person from an international film ever to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
It was the sole category never to have included an international film. The trivia gets tricky because performances given in other languages have won Best Supporting Actor, such as Robert De Niro’s Italian-speaking role in “The Godfather: Part II” and Benicio del Toro’s Spanish-speaking one in “Traffic,” but those were American films. Skarsgård is the first for an international production, produced and financed in another country.
And Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”) was nominated for Best Actor, the first Brazilian actor ever in the running for an Oscar. Only two Brazilians have even been nominated in acting categories: Fernanda Montenegro (“Central Station”) in 1999 and her daughter Fernanda Torres for last year’s “I’m Still Here.”
Plus, none of these four acting nods were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild’s Actors Awards, a signal of the significant difference in membership of the two overlapping awards bodies.
At the Oscars, the four acting nominees symbolize the overall fine showing for international productions, with a record-tying two films nominated for Best Picture: Norway’s “Sentimental Value” and Brazil’s “The Secret Agent.” Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” a French production made in Iran, also scored a nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category.
The past two Oscar lineups also included two international films in the Best Picture lineup: “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest” in 2023 and “Emilia Peréz” and “I’m Still Here” in 2024.
