Five films were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Awards in 2011. The films competing for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards are Biutiful (Mexico), Dogtooth (Greece), In a Better World (Denmark), Incendies (Canada) and Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) (Algeria).http://oscar.go.com/#category_foreign-language-film   

Only two of the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominees also received Golden Globe nominations: Biutiful and In a Better World.  In a Better World took home the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in January of 2011.http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/ 

Only one of the films, Mexico's Biutiful, has a nomination in another major category.  Javier Bardem was nominated for a Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for his portrayal of a Spanish criminal who must come to terms with the decisions he's made and how they affect his life and the lives of his loved ones.http://oscar.go.com/#category_actor-in-a-leading-role http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/biutiful/687081 

Biutiful is a 2010 foreign language drama that follows a Barcelona man's struggle to provide for his two children while navigating the city's criminal underworld.http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/biutiful/687081   

In Dogtooth, three teenagers raised in total isolation on their country estate by domineering and controlling parents come of age and begin to "test the boundaries" imposed by their mother and father.http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/dogtooth/688807 

In a Better World tells the story of two Danish boys trying to connect with their fathers.  The boys forge a close friendship - one based on violence.  Their families must try to help the boys understand how to live a life of non-violence.http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/in-a-better-world/688796 

Incendies tells the story of twin children, Jeanne and Simon, who travel to their mother's native Lebanon after she dies in an effort to fulfill her last wishes.  Together, Jeanne and Simon must piece together their family's "complex" history.http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/incendies/688794 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/09/telluride-2010-incendies-blends-greek-tragedy-with-modern-warfare.html 

Outside the Law is set in post-World War II Algeria, where a trio of brothers "follow very different paths" as each tries to help Algeria gain independence from France.http://oscar.go.com/nominations/category/foreign-language-film/synopsis/outside-the-law-horslaloi/688787 

The first official Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award was given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1956. That year, the Oscar went to La Strada, an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. More recent winners of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar include Germany's The Lives of Others in 2006, Austria's The Counterfeiters in 2007, Japan's Departures in 2008 and Argentina's The Secret in their Eyes in 2009.http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1297825468283 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047528/  

In Oscar history, very few foreign language films have ever garnered a Best Picture nomination. Foreign language films that received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture include 1938's Grand Illusion, Z in 1969, The Emigrants in 1972, Cries and Whispers in 1973, The Postman (Il Postino) in 1995, Life is Beautiful in 1998, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 and Letters from Iwo Jima in 2006.  To date, no foreign language film has ever won a Best Picture Oscar.http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1297825468283 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047528/