India has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (formerly Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) since 1957, a year after the incorporation of the category. The award is given annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The "Best Foreign Language Film" category was not created until 1956; however, between 1947 and 1955, the academy presented a non-competitive Honorary Award for the best foreign language films released in the United States.
The Film Federation of India (FFI) appoints a committee to choose one film among those released that year to be submitted as India's official entry to the academy for a nomination for "Best Foreign Language Film" the following year. The chosen films, along with their English subtitles, are sent to the academy, where they are screened for the jury.
As of 2025, India has been nominated three times, for: 1957's Mother India (India's first submission, which came close to winning but lost to Nights of Cabiria by a single vote), 1988's Salaam Bombay! and 2001's Lagaan (2001).
From the 58 films submitted, 36 of the which were Hindi films (including five Hindustani films, one Urdu film and one Hindi-Tamil bilingual film), three of which received nominations. Ten Tamil films (including one Hindi-Tamil bilingual film), four Malayalam films, three Marathi films, two of each Bengali and Gujarati films and one film of each Assamese and Telugu languages have been submitted.
Since 1984, India has not submitted a film on only one occasion; in 2003, the FFI controversially chose not make an entry as they felt no film would be in a position to compete with films from other nations.
In 2011, the jury of the 58th National Film Awards made a recommendation that the Best Film winners at the annual National Film Awards be chosen as the official entry.
Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray has represented India three times in this competition, the most by any director. As actors Kamal Haasan and Raghubir Yadav have been part of seven films submitted for the considerationâÂÂmore than any other performer. One of Haasan's directorial effort was also submitted. Aamir Khan has represented India four times as an actor, including once as a director and four times as a producer; Lagaan (2001), which he produced and starred in, received a nomination.
Since the 2010s, the country has failed to submit a number of films considered favorites by critics to a nomination or win, especially: The Lunchbox (2013), RRR (2022) and All We Imagine as Light (2024). RRR went to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.