In the fifth year of the new competitive category of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the winner was Swedish Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece, The Virgin Spring.
The New York Film Critics Circle honored another French film, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Alain Resnais poetic feature, with its top honor for foreign films.
The five nominees were:
The Virgin Spring, Sweden (winner)
Kapo, Italy
La Verite, France
Macario, Mexico (This was the first Mexican film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar)
The Ninth Circle, Yugoslavia
Americans Abroad
In 1960, Jules Dassin, the American director in exile due to blacklisting, was nominated for the Best Director Oscar for the Greek-language comedy, Never on Sunday, in which he also co-starred with his wife, actress Melina Mercouri.