American vs. European Movies

With a French movie, The Artist, winning so many awards at the Oscars this past weekend, it got me thinking about how our film industry does overseas. I looked it up and found some interesting information.

A lot of times, foreign awards shows don't allow American movies to be nominated for Best Picture, but have a separate Best Foreign Film category, like ours, which Iran's A Separation won this year. American movies are a big hit in Asia, with The King’s Speech, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Moneyball, The Social Network, and Black Swan nominated at the Japanese Academy Awards, while the only American movies nominated at the French Césars were Drive and Black Swan. However, Gran Torino has won Best Picture at the French Césars.

Only eight completely foreign-language films have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, but foreign-directed and produced films are more regularly nominated, and three of the last four have gone to foreign-produced films.

It is interesting that other countries, particularly European countries, have strict rules regarding American films, while our Academy is more open to foreign movies.