The rules currently governing the International Feature Film category state that "the Academy statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the picture and 'accepted by the director on behalf of the film's creative talents". Therefore, the director does not personally win the Award, but simply accepts it during the ceremony. In fact, the award never has been associated with a specific individual, except for the 1956 (29th) Academy Awards when the names of the producers were included in the nomination for the Foreign Language Film category. Officially, a director like Federico Fellini is considered never to have won an Academy Award of Merit during his lifetime, even though four of his films received the Foreign Language Film Award (the only Academy Award that Fellini personally won was his 1992 Honorary Award). However, producers Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti were considered to have won the 1956 Foreign Language Film Award given to Fellini's La Strada (1954) because their names explicitly were included in the nomination.
the rules currently governing the international feature film category state that "the academy statuette (oscar) will be awarded to the picture and 'accepted by the director on behalf of the film's creative talents" therefore the director does not personally win the award but simply accepts it during the ceremony in fact the award never has been associated with a specific individual except for the 1956 (29th) academy awards when the names of the producers were included in the nomination for the foreign language film category officially a director like federico fellini is considered never to have won an academy award of merit during his lifetime even though four of his films received the foreign language film award (the only academy award that fellini personally won was his 1992 honorary award) however producers dino de laurentiis and carlo ponti were considered to have won the 1956 foreign language film award given to fellini's la strada (1954) because their names explicitly were included in the nomination