The following 63 films, all from different countries, were submitted for the 79th Academy Awards (scheduled to be held on February 25 2007 at the Kodak Theatre) in the category Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (released by the country of origin between October 1, 2005 - September 30, 2006, ceremony February 2007).

For the first time, countries were officially allowed to submit movies in languages that were not indigenous to the submitting country. This allowed Canada to submit a Hindi-language film for the first time.

Lithuania submitted a film for the first time. Serbia submitted a film for the first time after participating with Montenegro as the now defunct joint state of Serbia and Montenegro in previous editions. Kazakhstan submitted a film for the first time since the fall of the USSR.

The official list of films accepted by AMPAS was announced on October 19, 2006. The list included a record 61 films, not including the Finnish entry, which was withdrawn by the director at the last minute. The films featured 39 different primary languages. Ten films were made in Spanish, more than any other language. Five films were filmed wholly or partially in Arabic and German.

The Academy began screening the films on October 21, 2006 and announced a shortlist of nine on 16 January 2007. The official nominations for the 79th Academy Awards were announced on January 23, 2007.