Brazil has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1960. The award is handed out annually by the United States–based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature length motion picture produced outside the U.S. that contains primarily non-English language dialogue. It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit was created for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since. As of 2023, 52 Brazilian films have been submitted for the award. Four of these submissions resulted in nominations for the Best Foreign Language Film category, but none of them won. Black Orpheus, a Portuguese language film shot in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus, won the award at the 1959 ceremony, but it was submitted by the French government and thus France was credited as the recipient country of the award. Brazilian last nomination in the category was Central Station (1998), at the 71st Academy Awards, alongside Fernanda Montenegro nomination in the Best Actress category. Even though City of God was selected as the Brazilian submission for the 75th Academy Awards, the film was famously snubbed, and subsequently nominated in the following ceremony, the 76th Academy Awards, for: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

Statistics

Films directed by Carlos Diegues (also known as Cacá Diegues) have been chosen to represent Brazil at the Academy Awards seven times, more than any other director. Followed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Walter Salles, with four each. Only Salles, however, managed to achieve an Oscar nomination, in 1999, for Central Station. Three films by Bruno Barreto were submitted, although his biggest success, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, the second highest-grossing film in the history of Brazilian cinema, was not chosen. Four Days in September (1997) got nominated in 1998. Suzana Amaral's Hour of the Star (1987) became the first film directed by a woman to be submitted, only twenty-nine years later another film directed by a female filmmaker was selected to be submitted as the Brazilian's entry, Anna Muylaert 's The Second Mother (2015), with Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (2019), by Bárbara Paz, being the last.

Submissions

Below is a list of the films that have been submitted by the Brazilian government for Academy Award consideration. The Brazilian nominee is selected annually by a committee assembled by the Ministry of Culture:

Shortlisted films

Every year since 2022, Brazil has announced a list of finalists that varied in number over the years (from 5 to 6 films) before announcing its official Oscar nominee. The following films have been shortlisted: