List of Kyrgyz submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

This is the list of Kyrgyz submissions for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category. Kyrgyzstan has submitted three films for consideration since gaining its independence from the USSR in 1991, but has thus far failed to make it to the final stage of the final 5 Oscar nominees.

All three films are stories about life in rural Kyrgyzstan, and all three were co-produced with funding from French production companies.

The first two films- "Beshkempir, The Adopted Son" and "The Chimp"- were written & directed by Aktan Abdykalykov (now known as Aktan Arym Kubat), and star his teenage son Mirlan. Both films are coming-of-age dramas about life in the rural north of the country. "Beshkempir" is the story of a 13-year old boy who finds out that he is adopted. "The Chimp" is a grimmer story about a 17-year old in Soviet-era Kyrgyzstan living in a poor, industrial town with his mother, sister and alcoholic father, who is waiting to be drafted into the Soviet army.

"The Wedding Chest", the feature debut of the then 30-year old director Nurbek Egen, deals with somewhat lighter subject matter. A young Kyrgyz man returns home from his studies in France, with a beautiful French fiancée in tow. His fiancée is warmly welcomed by the village and captivated by the beauty of the region, but the man stubbornly refuses to tell his family that the two are engaged.

"Beshkempir" was the first movie from indepedent Kyrgyzstan to win awards at major international film festivals including Locarno and Tokyo. "Beshkempir" became the first Kyrgyz movie to be released on DVD in the United States in 2000, while "The Chimp" got a DVD release in Hong Kong. Both DVD releases feature English subtitles. "The Wedding Chest" was released on DVD in Russia with no English subtitles.

The first-ever Kyrgyz film to be submitted for Oscar consideration was "The Ferocious One", a Kyrgyz production that was submitted by the USSR in late 1974 to compete for the 1975 Foreign Oscar. In this Russian-language film, a boy convinces his cruel uncle to spare the life of a wolf pup and sets out to raise the wild animal to keep watch over the house.