The following 56 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 76th Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film which took place in 2004. The bolded titles were the five nominated films.

Films were submitted by Mongolia, Palestine and Sri Lanka for the first time. Palestine had tried to submit a film the year before, but was prevented from doing so by the Academy which said that Palestine was not a country and had no recognized Film Board. The Academy subsequently changed its mind saying that although Palestine was not a recognized country, they would make "an exception" in the interests of inclusiveness.

The Film Federation of India announced that their selection committee had been unable to find a suitable film to send to the Oscars and so declined to send an entry. This left India out of the race for the first time in over a decade. Also notable by their first absence in over ten years was Switzerland (though they were disqualified in 1994).

Country	Film title used in nomination	Director
Afghanistan	Osama	Siddiq Barmak
Argentina	Valentín	Alejandro Agresti
Armenia	Vodka Lemon	Hiner Saleem
Austria	Free Radicals (Böse Zellen)	Barbara Albert
Belgium	Sea of Silence	Stijn Coninx
Bolivia	Dependencia sexual (Sexual Dependency)	Rodrigo Bellott
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Fuse (Gori Vatra)	Pjer Žalica
Brazil	Carandiru	Hector Babenco
Bulgaria	Journey to Jerusalem	Ivan Nichev
Canada	The Barbarian Invasions (winner)	Denys Arcand
Chile	Los Debutantes	Andres Waissbluth
China	Warriors of Heaven and Earth	He Ping
Colombia	The First Night ("La Primera Noche")	Luis Alberto Restrepo
Croatia	Witnesses	Vinko Bresan, directo
Cuba	Suite Habana	Fernando Perez
Czech Republic	Želary	Ondřej Trojan
Denmark	Reconstruction	Christoffer Boe
Egypt	Sleepless Nights	Hany Khalifa
Finland	Elina: As If I Didn't Exist	Klaus Haro
France	Bon voyage	Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Germany	Good Bye Lenin!	Wolfgang Becker
Greece	Think It Over	Katerina Evangelakou
Hong Kong	Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
Hungary	Forest (Rengeteg)	Benedek Fliegauf
Iceland	Nói Albínói	Dagur Kari Petursson
Indonesia	The Stringless Violin	Sekar Ayu Asmara
Iran	Deep Breath	Kambuzia Partovi
Israel	Nina's Tragedies	Savi Gavison
Italy	I'm Not Scared	Gabriele Salvatores
Japan	The Twilight Samurai	Yoji Yamada
Korea (South)	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring	Kim Ki-duk
Lebanon	The Kite	Randa Chahal Sabbag
Luxembourg	I Always Wanted To Be a Saint	Genevieve Mersch
Mexico	Aro Tolbukhin	Isaac-Pierre Racine, Lydia Zimmeman and Agustí Villaronga
Mongolia	The Story of the Weeping Camel	Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni
Nepal	Muna Madan	Gyanendra Bahadur Deuja
Netherlands	Twin Sisters	Ben Sombogaart
Norway	Kitchen Stories	Bent Hamer
Palestinian Authority	Divine Intervention	Elia Suleiman
Peru	Paper Dove (Palome de Papel)	Fabrizio Aguilar
Philippines	Dekada '70	Chito S. Rono
Poland	Pornografia	Jan Jakub Kolski
Portugal	A Talking Picture (Um Filme Falado)	Manoel De Oliveira
Russia	Vozvrashcheniye (The Return)	Andrei Zvyagintsev
Serbia and Montenegro	The Professional	Dusan Kovacevic
Slovakia	King of Thieves	Ivan Fila
Slovenia	Spare Parts	Damjan Kozole
Sri Lanka	Mansion by the Lake	Lester James Peries
Spain	Soldados de Salamina	David Trueba
Sweden	Evil (Ondskan)	Mikael Hafstrom
Taiwan	Goodbye, Dragon Inn	Tsai Ming-Liang
Thailand	Last Life in the Universe	Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Turkey	Uzak (Distant)	Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Ukraine	Mamay	Oles Sanin
Uruguay	Seawards Journey (El Viaje hacia el mar)	Guillermo Casanova
Venezuela	Sangrador	Leonardo Henriquez

Notes

References

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Record-Breaking 56 Countries in Competition for Oscar. Press release. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.