This is a list of submissions to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film every year since the award was created in 1956.^[1] The award is handed out annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue.^[1][2] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.^[2]

The deadline for all countries to send in their submissions is September 30, 2009. The submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2009.^[2] For more details on the Academy's submission and nomination process for Best Foreign Language Film, see Rule Fourteen: Special Rules for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

The Academy has received 67 official Oscar submissions, tying the record set in 2008. The submissions from Algeria and Mongolia were disqualified from competing.

A shortlist of nine semi-finalists was announced January 20, 2010.^[3] The official nominees were announced on February 2, 2010.^[4] The winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was Argentina's The Secret in Their Eyes.^[5]

• The Netherlands submitted their entry on September 2, but the decision was appealed. Many Netherlands-based producers argued that the submitted film did not meet the AMPAS criteria for eligibility because it was a re-montage. The Netherlands reconvened the Oscar committee on September 21. AMPAS concluded that the entry was in fact ineligible after which Winter in Wartime was entered. In the Dutch press Winter in Wartime producer San Fu Malta lamented that the mistake made his film appear to be second choice. Voicing the sentiment of large sections of the filmsector, he argued that the committee falling under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science should not have decided upon the Oscar nomination. That should have been done by, for instance, the jury of the Netherlands Film Festival which had the requisite expertise and was free of any conflict of interest.^[9][10]
•  Serbia's Oscar selection committee originally voted to submit Here and There, which is set in Belgrade and New York City and features a mixed American and Serbian cast. After consulting with the Academy, Serbia changed its submission since the film appears to contain more than 50% English dialogue.^[11]
• Sri Lanka originally announced that they would send Flowers of the Sky ^[12] but The Road from Elephant Pass was eventually announced to be Sri Lanka's final submission.^[13]
• Thirteen other countries (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Nepal, Palestinian Territories, Singapore, and Ukraine) that submitted films within the three previous years opted not to send a movie for Oscar consideration in 2009.