list of tunisian submissions for the academy award for best international feature film

Source: List of Tunisian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

Tunisia has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film on an irregular basis since 1995. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. As of 2021, eight Tunisian films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and only one, The Man Who Sold His Skin, was nominated for an Oscar.
Tunisia's first two Oscar submissions were dramas with exceptionally similar plots, both revolving around the influence of cinema on the life of impressionable young Tunisian boys. The Magic is a semi-autobiographical story, based on the life of director Melliti, in which a young boy is left home alone to watch over the family residence when his impoverished family emigrates to France. The boy discovers the joy of movies at a local cinema and begins to try and re-enact them (sans camera) with his friends. In The Magic Box, a Tunisian director in France is writing a screenplay based on his life as a boy in Tunisia, seen through flashbacks, in which his strict, religious father tried to instill different values in him than his more liberal film-loving uncles. Both films were primarily in French, with some Arabic dialogue.