This is a list of submissions to the 51st Academy Awards (1978) for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States. The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country. For the 51st Academy Awards, nineteen films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Cuba and Lebanon submitted films for consideration for the first time. The highlighted titles were the five nominated films, which came from France, West Germany, Hungary, Italy and the USSR. France won the award with the comedy, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, starring Gérard Depardieu as a husband who finds a new lover for his depressed wife.
Submitting country Film title used in nomination Original title Language(s) Director(s) Result The Lyre of Delight A Lira do Delírio Brazilian Portuguese Walter Lima Jr. The Recourse to the Method / Viva el Presidente El recurso del método Spanish Miguel Littín Dinner for Adele / Nick Carter in Prague Adéla ještě nevečeřela Czech Oldřich Lipský Me and Charly Mig og Charly Danish Morten Arnfred and Henning Kristiansen Get Out Your Handkerchiefs Préparez vos mouchoirs French Bertrand Blier The Glass Cell Die Gläserne Zelle German Hans W. Geißendörfer Hungarians Magyarok Hungarian Zoltán Fábri The Chess Players शतरंज के खिलाड़ी Hindi, Urdu, English Satyajit Ray Lemon Popsicle אסקימו לימון Hebrew Boaz Davidson Viva Italia! I nuovi mostri Italian Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli Empire of Passion 愛の亡霊 Japanese Nagisa Oshima The Wedding of Zein عرس الزين Arabic Khalid Al Siddiq Promise of Love Սիրո Խոստումը Armenian, English, French Sarky Mouradian The Place Without Limits El lugar sin límites Spanish Arturo Ripstein Pastorale 1943 Dutch Wim Verstappen Death of a President Smierc prezydenta Polish Jerzy Kawalerowicz White Bim Black Ear Белый Бим Черное ухо Russian Stanislav Rostotsky Somnambulists Sonámbulos Spanish Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón Occupation in 26 Pictures Okupacija u 26 slika Serbo-Croatian, Italian, German, Russian, French, Latin Lordan Zafranović