[1] 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.

[6][7] Two rule changes were made for the 79th Academy Awards in regard to the Best Foreign Language Film process.

[8] The first was instituting a two-step process in choosing the nominees for the award in order to allow New York–based members of the Academy to participate.

[10] The second change was the removal of a rule requiring that the films be in an official language of the submitting country.

[13] Germany won the award for the third time with The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.