The film winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was somewhat serendipitous. The film's reception in its native Netherlands had been somewhat lukewarm, and most of the attention had gone to Zusje (1995) (which had also beaten Memorias de Antonia (1995) as Best Picture at the Dutch Film Festival that year). However, since Zusje (1995) had not been officially released in theaters at the time, it couldn't qualify as the Dutch submission for the Oscars. Fortunately, Memorias de Antonia (1995) enjoyed much more critical success abroad, and especially the positive reception in the USA was felt to have contributed to the film winning the Oscar.
The first movie directed by a woman to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Epilogue: "And as this long chronicle reaches its conclusion, nothing has come to an end."
Carolien Spoor's debut.