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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film every year since the award was created in 1956. The award is handed out annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.
For the 80th Academy Awards, which were held on February 24, 2008, the Academy invited 95 countries to submit films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Sixty-three countries submitted films to the Academy, the highest number of submissions in the history of the award, including Azerbaijan and Ireland, which submitted films for the first time. Several of the submissions were subject to controversy. The Academy determined that initial submissions from Israel and Taiwan did not meet Academy requirements, and both countries submitted new films as replacements. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts was subject to criticism for not submitting the Scottish Gaelic Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle or the Welsh Calon Gaeth. Bolivia's official submission, Los Andes no creen en Dios, did not appear on the Academy's list of accepted submissions.
Due to a change in the rules made for the 79th Academy Awards, the Academy published a shortlist of nine films on January 15, 2008, prior to the selection of the final five nominees. The Academy engendered controversy with its selections, notably the omission of Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which had won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and France's Persepolis, the winner of the Jury Prize at the same Cannes Film Festival. After revealing the shortlist, the Academy released a list of nominees on January 22, 2008. The winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Austria's The Counterfeiters, which was directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky.