The following 31 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 61st Academy Awards

61st Academy Awards

The 61st Academy Awards were presented on March 29, 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The date had been moved from its usual Monday telecast due to Easter, which was on March 26. For this show, there was no "official" host as the show opened with a stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow...

 in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. The bolded titles were the five nominated films, which came from Belgium, Denmark (winner), Hungary, India and Spain.

The Dutch submission, the thriller The Vanishing

The Vanishing

The Vanishing may refer to:* The Vanishing , a Dutch film* The Vanishing , an American film* The Vanishing...

, was disqualified by the Oscar committee. AMPAS complained that less than 50% of the dialogue in the film was in Dutch, and that French was the majority language. Although the film was made by the Netherlands with a French-Dutch filmmaker and a mixed cast (mostly Dutch), AMPAS deemed that the film was not suitable to represent the Netherlands. The Netherlands declined to send another film, leaving them unrepresented for the first time since 1972.

The Soviet film was filmed in 1967, but was banned for twenty years.

Country	Film title used in nomination	Language	Original name	Director	IMDB
	The Debt		La Deuda interna	Miguel Pereira Miguel Pereira (film director) Miguel Pereira is a film director, producer and screenplay writer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina.-Biography:...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092880/
	Undiscovered Country The Distant Land The Distant Land is a 1987 Austrian-German drama film directed by Luc Bondy. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Michel Piccoli - Friedrich Hofreiter* Bulle Ogier - Génia* Wolfgang Hübsch - Mauer...		Das Weite Land	Luc Bondy Luc Bondy - Biography :Trained in Paris with the theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, he received a job in 1969 as an assistant at the Hamburg Thalia Theatre. In a surprise, he took over in 1985 after the resignation of Peter Stein at the Schaubühne in Berlin. He also worked as a producer of both plays and operas...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094305/
	The Music Teacher The Music Teacher The Music Teacher is a 1988 Belgian film directed and co-written by Gérard Corbiau. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.- Plot :... '		Le Maître de musique	Gérard Corbiau Gérard Corbiau Gérard Corbiau is a Belgian film director.Corbiau was born in Brussels, Belgium. He is best known for his costume dramas about music, Le maître de musique , Farinelli and Le roi danse . Two of them were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095606/
	The Story of Fausta'		Romance da Empregada	Bruno Barreto Bruno Barreto Bruno Barreto is a Brazilian film director born in Rio de Janeiro. He has been making feature-length films ever since he was seventeen years old and remains one of Brazil’s most accomplished and popular directors to this day...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096006/
	Where Do We Go?		А сега накъде	Rangel Vulchanov Rangel Vulchanov Rangel Vulchanov is a Bulgarian cinema actor and director. He finished theater directing at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in 1953. He started working as an assistant director and subsequently as a director. Vulchanov worked in Czechoslovakia between 1970 and 1972...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098643/
	The Revolving Doors		Les portes tournantes	Francis Mankiewicz Francis Mankiewicz Francis Mankiewicz was a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. In 1945, his family moved to Montreal, where Francis would spend all his childhood. He was a relative of Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Herman J...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095891/
	Red Sorghum Red Sorghum Red Sorghum is a 1987 Chinese film about a young woman's life working on a distillery for sorghum liquor. It is based on a novel by Mo Yan....		红高粱	Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum....	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093206/
	Letters from the Park		Cartas del parque	Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a Cuban filmmaker. He wrote and directed more than 20 features, documentaries, and short films, which are known for his sharp insight into post-Revolutionary Cuba, and possess a delicate balance between dedication to the revolution and criticism of the social, economic,...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094838/
	Pelle the Conqueror Pelle the Conqueror Pelle the Conqueror is a 1987 Danish film by Bille August that tells the story of two Swedish immigrants to Denmark, a father and son, who try to build a new life for themselves...  (winner)		Pelle erobreren	Bille August Bille August Bille August is a Danish Academy Award winning film and television director. His film Pelle the Conqueror from 1987 won the Palme D'or, Academy Award and Golden Globe. He is one of the very few directors to win the Palme D'or twice, winning the prestigious award again in 1991 for The Best...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093713/
	A One-Way Ticket		Un Pasaje de Ida	Agliberto Meléndez Agliberto Meléndez Agliberto Melendez is a Dominican film director best known as the director of A One Way Ticket , the Dominican Republic's first feature length film,produced entirely in the Dominican Republic by a Dominican cast and crew. The film became known to American audiences after its 1989 debut in New York...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122652/
	La Lectrice		La Lectrice	Michel Deville Michel Deville Michel Deville is a French film director and screenwriter.Deville started his filmmaking career in the late 1950s, paralleling the emergence of the French New Wave directors...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095511/
	Yasemin Yasemin Yasemin is a 1988 German-language film directed by Hark Bohm. It was an international co-production between Turkey and West Germany. It was chosen as West Germany's official submission to the 61st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but did not manage to receive a nomination...		Yasemin	Hark Bohm Hark Bohm Hark Bohm is a German actor, screenwriter, film director, playwright and former professor for cinema studies. He was born in Hamburg-Othmarschen and grew up on the island Amrum. His younger brother was the actor Marquard Bohm, who starred in some of his early films...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096476/
	In the Shadow of Fear		Στη σκιά του τρόμου	Yiorgos Karypidis	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289485/
	Hanussen		Hanussen	István Szabó István Szabó István Szabó is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.Szabó is the most internationally famous Hungarian filmmaker since the late 1960s. Working in the tradition of European, auteurist art cinema, he has made films that represent many of the psychological and political...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095276/
	In the Shadow of the Raven		Í skugga hrafnsins	Hrafn Gunnlaugsson Hrafn Gunnlaugsson Hrafn Gunnlaugsson is an Icelandic moviemaker. He is the brother of the actress Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir. He is mostly known for his series of Viking movies, sometimes called "Cod Westerns"...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095346/
	Salaam Bombay! Salaam Bombay! Salaam Bombay! is a 1988 Hindi film directed by Mira Nair, and screenwritten by her longtime creative collaborator, Sooni Taraporevala. The film chronicles the day-to-day life of children living on the streets of Bombay...		Salaam Bombay!	Mira Nair Mira Nair Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096028/
	The Summer of Aviya		הקיץ של אביה	Eli Cohen Eli Cohen (actor) Eli Cohen is an Israeli actor and film director. In 1989, his film Summer of Aviya won the Silver Bear Award from the 39th Berlin International Film Festival...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095433/
	The Legend of the Holy Drinker		La Leggenda del santo bevitore	Ermanno Olmi Ermanno Olmi Ermanno Olmi is a renowned Italian film director.-Biography:Olmi was born in Bergamo, Lombardy. He is married to Loredana Detto, who played Antonietta Masetti in Il Posto....	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095513/
	Hope and Pain Hope and Pain is a 1988 Japanese film directed by Yoji Yamada. It was Japan's submission to the 61st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee...		ダウンタウン・ヒーローズ	Yôji Yamada Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director best known for his Otoko wa Tsurai yo series of films and his Samurai Trilogy ....	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123789/
	The Last Tunnel		El Último túnel	Servando González	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291581/
	The Vanishing The Vanishing The Vanishing may refer to:* The Vanishing , a Dutch film* The Vanishing , an American film* The Vanishing... (DISQUALIFIED)		Spoorloos	George Sluizer George Sluizer George Sluizer , is a Dutch filmmaker whose credits include features as well as documentary films....	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096163/
	The Spectre of War		El Espectro de la guerra	Ramiro Lacayo-Deshon	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178417/
	The Ice Palace		Is-slottet	Per Blom Per Blom Per Blom is a Norwegian sprint canoer who competed in the early 1970s. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, he was disqualified in the heats of the K-2 1000 m event.-References:*...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097594/
	The Mouth of the Wolf		La Boca del lobo	Francisco J. Lombardi	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094773/
	A Short Film About Love		Krótki film o milosci	Krzysztof Kieslowski Krzysztof Kieslowski Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095467/
	Hard Times		Tempos Difíceis	João Botelho João Botelho João Botelho is a Portuguese film director.He has directed and written the screenplays of numerous films. His films have won several awards...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095279/
	Tango Bar		Tango Bar	Marcos Zurinaga Marcos Zurinaga Marcos Zurinaga is a cinematographer born and raised in Puerto Rico. Among the several movies that he has directed is "La Gran Fiesta", a movie about the last grand party at the old "Casino de Puerto Rico" building in Old San Juan before it was turned over to military use as the United States was...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096221/
	Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a 1988 Spanish black comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas...		Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios	Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095675/
	La Méridienne		La Méridienne	Jean-François Amiguet Jean-François Amiguet Jean-François Amiguet is a Swiss film director and screenwriter. His film Lounge Chair was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.-Filmography:* Alexandre * La méridienne...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095625/
	My Mother's Teahouse		春秋茶室	Kun Ho Chen	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100214/
	Commissar Commissar (film) Commissar is a 1967 Soviet movie based on one of Vasily Grossman's first short stories, "In the Town of Berdichev" . The main characters were played by two People's Artists of the USSR, Rolan Bykov and Nonna Mordyukova...		Комиссар	Aleksandr Askoldov Aleksandr Askoldov Aleksandr Yakovlevich Askoldov was a Soviet Russian actor and film director. He graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute. After finishing the advanced directing course he directed his first film, Commissar...	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061876/
	My Uncle's Legacy		Život sa stricem	Krsto Papić Krsto Papic Krsto Papić is a Croatian screenwriter and film director whose career spans several decades....	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096510/