An Argentine thriller has won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a category usually dominated by European contenders.

The Spanish-language The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos), a crime drama about an investigator's obsession with a murder case, was a hit in Argentina, but was not expected to beat stiff competition for the Oscar.

As well as being the second most successful film in Argentina's history, it has now become only the second Argentine film to win Best Foreign Language Film. The first was The Official Story, in 1985.

Other entrants this year included the acclaimed German drama The White Ribbon, which took the Palm d'Or at Cannes, and the French film A Prophet.

The White Ribbon's Director of Photography was a candidate for Best Cinematography – a rare nomination for a foreign film.

Associated Press noted the controversy over the "Byzantine" rules for foreign-language films, which limits nominations to one per country, occasionally leading to worthy contenders being overlooked.

Accepting the Academy Award on Sunday, director Juan Jose Campanella joked that he was thankful to the Academy "for not considering Na'vi a foreign language."

Na'vi was the fictional alien language created for James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar - a science-fiction epic that garnered several major nominations and won three Oscars, but failed to scoop Best Picture or Best Director.

Linguist Paul Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California, was hired to devise the Na'vi language. Although it had a limited vocabulary of only 1,000 words, it was fully functioning, based on the grammar and syntax of existing languages.

07 March 2010