Gael García Bernal in Chile's No.

The Academy of Motion Pictures released its short list for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar on Friday. In alphabetical order by country, here it is: Austria, Amour Canada, War Witch Chile, No Denmark, A Royal Affair France, The Intouchables Iceland, The Deep Norway, Kon-Tiki Romania, Beyond the Hills Switzerland, Sister

Euro Trip Death from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, winner of 1957's Foreign Language Film category.

Europe is well represented on this year’s short list, as it has been since the category was introduced in 1956. Over the past 20 years, the field has expanded somewhat with countries like Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Nepal, Peru, and Vietnam receiving their first nominations, and former powerhouses like Italy falling off in a big way (the latter was nominated 15 out of the first 20 years of the award, but has been nominated only four times in the last 20 years). But although the range of source countries has broadened, the category remains largely Europe’s game — winning films have been from Europe for 14 of the last 20 years. And for all the ballyhooing about the rise of world cinema, that ratio has only marginally improved in the last decade — six of the ten most recent winners were from outside of Europe.

Wealth of Nations Rachel Mwanza in Canada's War Witch.

When it deigns to recognize the world outside of Europe, Oscar likes to spread the wealth around. In the past 20 years, only two non-European countries (China and Israel) have received four nominations, and only two others (Argentina and Algeria) have received three. Japan, India, Peru, Mexico, and 11 others have had to make do with just one or two. As a whole, Asian nations have received a total of 10 nominations, Central and South American countries have gotten nine nods total, three nominations have gone to African nations, and films from the Middle East have been recognized five times. In the same period, France alone has received nine nominations, and Germany eight.

Oscar's BFFs François Cluzet and Omar Sy in France's The Intouchables

Here are the Academy’s 10 favorite foreigners since the category debuted 56 years ago: Italy: 10 wins, 27 nominations France: 9 wins, 36 nominations Spain: 3 wins, 19 nominations Germany: 3 wins, 18 nominations Sweden: 3 wins, 14 nominations Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia: 3 wins, 9 nominations Soviet Union: 3 wins, 9 nominations Denmark: 3 wins, 8 nominations Netherlands: 2 wins, 7 nominations Switzerland: 2 wins, 5 nominations

Swiss Miss Switzerland's Sister, directed by Ursula Meier.