This was the first winner of the Oscar for best foreign language film after the rules for the category were changed requiring all Academy members who wished to vote having to prove they had attended screenings of all five nominees.
The original French title of this movie was "La Victoire en Chantant" (Victory, as we sing), the first line of the famous patriotic song "Le chant du Départ" (The Farewell Hymn), written in 1794 during the French Revolution.
The movie was submitted for the Oscar as "Black and White in Colour". After it won the award, the title was re-translated literally in French ("Noirs et Blancs en couleur") for a new release there.
Jean-Jacques Annaud, in an interview included as an extra in the DVD, explains how he got the idea a few years before. He was working in Cameroun as part of his French national service. He read in an history of the country about the battle of Mora in the northern part of the country and from there grew the story that became the film.
The original title 'La Victoire en chantant' is also the first line of the famous French revolution song "Le chant du Départ" written by Méhul and Chénier and sung by Georges Thil in the opening credits over photographs taken during WWI.