"In a Better World," known in its native Denmark as "Hævnen," was the winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. Directed by Susanne Bier, the movie stars Mikael Persbrandt as a doctor struggling to juggle his family life in Denmark with his work in a Sudanese refugee camp. The other Foreign Language nominees at the 83rd Academy Awards were Mexico's "Biutiful," "Dogtooth" from Greece, the French-Canadian "Incendies" and "Outside the Law," an Algerian drama set against the backdrop of that country's battle for independence.
Juan José Campanella's "The Secret in Their Eyes" won the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, becoming the first Argentinian film to take the trophy since 1985. The film is a crime thriller adapted from the novel "La Pregunta de Sus Ojos" by Eduardo Sacheri. 2009's other nominees were Israel's "Ajami," the Peruvian war film "The Milk of Sorrow," prison drama "A Prophet" from France and Michael Haneke's Austrian-German "The White Ribbon."
The 2008 Oscars saw a victory for the Japanese movie "Okuribito," known as "Departures" in the English-speaking world. Directed by Yojiro Takita, it stars Masahiro Motoki as an unemployed cellist who begins a new career as a mortician. The other four nominees for Best Foreign Language Picture at the 81st Academy Awards were the German terrorist biopic "The Baader Meinhof Complex," the French school drama "The Class," Austria's "Revanche" and the Israeli animation "Waltz with Bashir."
The 80th Academy Awards saw a first victory for Austria in the foreign film category with "The Counterfeiters" taking the prize home. Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and starring Karl Markovics and August Diehl, the film is a dramatization of Operation Bernhard, the Nazi plot to flood the United Kingdom with fake currency during World War II. The other nominees for Best Foreign Language Film that year were Russia's "12," Israel's "Beaufort," "Katyn" from Poland and the first ever Kazakhstani film to receive a nomination in the category, "Mongol" by Sergei Bodrov.