The article explores a now-closed loophole in the Academy Awards' eligibility rules that once allowed certain films to be nominated for Oscars in two separate years. Over the ceremony's 97-year history, the Academy has periodically adjusted its categories and rules, from adding modern disciplines like Best Casting to tightening release-date requirements, and this particular quirk illustrates how staggered international releases could earn a film a second shot at glory.

The key example is Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966 after its European release, losing to A Man and a Woman. Because its US release was classified by the Academy as an April 1968 date, it became eligible again and picked up nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. A similar fate befell the French film My Night at Maud's, nominated first for Best Foreign Language Film and later in other categories following a delayed American release; neither film won in any of its nominations. The Academy has since closed this loophole so films can no longer be nominated across multiple years.