In other words, every foreign language film nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film lost the first award but won the second.

FORBES: Ten Facts You Should Know About The Oscars

Despite his lasting association with the director, Mr. von Sydow's one previous Oscar nomination was not for a role in a Bergman picture but rather for another Swedish-language part, that of Lassefar in Bille August's "Pelle the Conqueror" (1987), which won an Academy Award for best foreign film as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

WSJ: Max von Sydow | His Silence May Be Golden | Cultural Conversation by David Mermelstein

Iran's A Separation received the award for best foreign language film, while Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris won best screenplay.

BBC: Golden Globes: The Artist wins three awards

There's a clear favourite to win the Academy Award for best foreign language film this time - based on its spread of nominations alone, Amour is already an Oscar hit.

BBC: Oscars: best foreign film contenders

The French film about a literature teacher in inner-city Paris received glowing reviews and several other wins -- including an Independent Spirit Award for best foreign-language film -- though it came up short at the Oscars and at the Cesars (France's Oscar equivalent), taking home only a writing award at the latter.

CNN: Cannes exposure is no guarantee of success

After Dersu Uzala was Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior), winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1980, and Ran (Chaos, 1985), an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear which won him an Academy Award nomination for best director - a feat almost unheard of for a foreign-language film.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira