How the Oscars went international
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Sunday, many of the film industry’s biggest stars will gather in Los Angeles for Hollywood’s biggest night: the 98th annual Academy Awards.
Looming over the celebrations are some major upheavals in Hollywood: big corporate mergers, the incursion of AI, and mass layoffs. And it’s against that backdrop that the Oscars are increasingly nominating films, filmmakers, and actors from elsewhere in the world.
BBC film reporter and critic Tom Brook explains how the Oscars went global, and what it can tell us about the status of American soft power.
Producers: Xandra Ellin and Valerio Esposito
Executive producer: James Shield
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Workers make preparations for the 98th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles Credit: Reuters / Caroline Brehman
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.2 | It's the Oscars on Sunday. |
| 0:08.0 | It's Hollywood's biggest night. |
| 0:10.0 | And one way to look at the Academy Awards is that Hollywood is back. |
| 0:14.2 | The main contenders for Best Picture are two distinctly American movies. |
| 0:18.9 | One battle after another. |
| 0:20.3 | What time is it? |
| 0:22.1 | Uh, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't remember that part, all right? |
| 0:26.5 | Let's just not nitpick over the password stuff. |
| 0:28.7 | Look, this is Bob Ferguson, all right? |
| 0:30.2 | You just called my house. |
| 0:31.7 | And sinners. |
| 0:34.3 | Traveling, I don't know where the world I'm in. But beyond that headline about Hollywood's comeback, there's another much more complicated story |
| 0:45.1 | that raises questions about the enduring power of American movies. |
| 0:50.1 | The Oscars are increasingly nominating international films. |
| 0:55.4 | Films not made in Hollywood, not made in America, and not made in the English language. |
| 1:02.5 | So what does that mean for American movies, which have long been America's great cultural export? |
| 1:10.6 | From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:14.7 | And today on The Global Story, how did the Oscars go global? |
| 1:18.4 | And is America's cultural influence abroad on the decline? |
| 1:32.1 | Tom Brooke, welcome to the global story. |
| 1:33.5 | A pleasure to have you with us. |
... |
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