List of submissions to the 42nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

This is a list of submissions to the 42nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films produced outside the United States. The award is handed out annually, and is accepted by the winning film's director, although it is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Countries are invited by the Academy to submit their best films for competition according to strict rules, with only one film being accepted from each country.

For the 42nd Academy Awards, twenty-four films were submitted in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The five nominees came from Algeria, France, Sweden, the USSR and Yugoslavia. Algeria, submitting a film for the first time, became the first African country to receive an Oscar nomination in this category. Algeria ending up winning the award (for the only time) for the political thriller Z, a co-production with France.