Should foreign movies really win Best Pic?

2019 was a weak year for film anyway. Just look at the Best Picture lineup. Other foreign-language films in the past were worthy enough to win Best Picture: Roma, Amour, the un-nominated Downfall, and others.

NO.

Yes, I think it should be able to. It's the same as with animated feature, which I also think should be able to get nominated for or win Best Picture in theory. The Oscars might be American, but they're not like the AFI Awards that only allow American movies or even the Globes which only allow 50%+ English language spoken movies. There are no rules whatsoever in the Academy's rulebook saying that foreign movies shouldn't be able to win Best Picture. And I'll never understand the USA's weird negative stance on subtitles. I and billions of other people have watched subtitles all their lives and consider them normal, I have no idea why the US is so uptight about it. Also, f.e. 1917 is also a foreign movie, people just don't seem to care about that because it's still English. I don't know why a movie from another country is okay, but suddenly a different language is not okay.

And please can we stop with the cringey 'woke' complaints? If they wanted to be 'woke' Little Women would've won Best Screenplay, Harriet would've won Original Song and anything but Green Book would've won Best Picture last year. Of course it's a campaign and some people have probably voted without seeing all the movies, that's the case with all Oscar seasons (and considering it's still mainly an older generation voting that should work against Parasite), but the main reason why Parasite won is that it has received universal acclaim and has done something no foreign language movie has probably ever done before to this extent: uniting people from all over the world. A lot of people in Europa (including me) wanted this to win. What would be our gain if we didn't think it's a good movie? I don't have a special love for South Korea in particular, I was just completely amazed by Parasite in a way I haven't been by a movie in a long time. At it seems like the same was the case for a significant part of the Academy. The 'woke' argument just feels like a cheap politically fueled excuse for people who just don't want a foreign language movie to win and based on some conversations I've had, many of them haven't even seen the movie (not accusing the OP of this, I just wanted to mention what I noticed in general). One guy even started talking about how Joker tackles social commentary in an incredible way and Parasite is forgettable, because it's foreign, even though he doesn't even know what it's about and hasn't seen it. *spoiler* Parasite is also about social commentary *spoiler

It’s not foreign movie, it’s foreign language. Routinely, non-US made English language films are included in the Oscars best picture noms.   

I don't think I've ever been so annoyed with this forum, and that's saying something. Give me 38 consecutive threads about Neve Campbell from Anthony over this bullshit.

I hate to be NOT on the side of progress, but I agree. That's what the international film category is for. If an international film can win in the regular category then you don't need the international category.

Just have a best picture category that really covers the gamut of all movies across the world that given year. Like a lot of festivals do. If that were the case Hollywood movies would barely ever win, except for the fact that they can command much bigger budgets.

Here's how I would do it if I was in charge: Every year, we do the voting process as usual. If an international film ends up received enough votes to be nominated for Best Picture, then the Best International Film category isn't presented. Next year, we come back and do the same thing. If no international film receives enough votes for B.P., then B.I.F. is presented.

You might tell me that it's not fair to the 4 international films that would've been nominated. Well, what's the point if they already know they're going to lose?

For the record, I'd apply all of this to animated and documentary features too.

The British Film Academy (BAFTA) has a best British film category. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not have a best American Picture category. If it did, Social Network, Black Swan, or Inception- any of those three movies would have been up for that award in 2010.