 When the first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, to honor films released in 1927/28, there was no separate category for foreign language films because majority of the films released in 1927 and in 1928 where silent films.Between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented Special/Honorary Awards to the best foreign language films released in the United States.These awards, however, were not handed out on a regular basis (no award was given in 1953), and were not competitive since there were no nominees but simply one winning film per year.