To begin, Afghanistan and Ecuador have added two more titles to the list of Foreign Language Oscar contenders submitted to the 86th Academy Awards with Barmak Akram‘s Wajma (An Afghan Love Story) and Javier Andrade‘s Porcelain Horse, bringing the total number of submissions to 69 so far. Today marked the deadline for submissions and the Academy will soon announce the complete list of films accepted for consideration as this year’s race for the Foreign Language category may prove a little more interesting now that the entire voting membership of the Academy can vote for the category, though the nominations will still be determined by a committee.
What effect the rule change will have on the end results will be hard to determine since we won’t know how it would have happened otherwise, but opening the opportunity to more members can’t be a bad thing.
Bad things are brewing around the category, however, in the form of director Ritesh Batra whose The Lunchbox, which has been loved by most that have seen it since its premiere in Cannes earlier this year, was not submitted by the Film Federation of India for consideration in the Foreign Language category at this year’s Oscars. Batra apparently took to Facebook to issue his complaints with the FFI choosing instead The Good Road to which the FFI remained silent until recently.
Variety quotes a letter the Federation issued saying:
“We were maintaining a dignified silence till now amidst your constant ranting as we believed them to be the result of acute disappointment of a young boy with his debut film. Your presumptuous and dismissive comments without even seeing The Good Road was highly objectionable but we let that pass…
“But what you have recently posted in your Facebook account about ‘there being a corruption’ in the process is a serious allegation. As you are aware The Good Road is produced by NFDC, a government of India undertaking! Are you then suggesting that the I&B Ministry, i.e. the government of India has made a successful attempt in bribing the jurors??? … Very serious allegations indeed.”
While Batra has removed the post and apologized, Variety, however, does note that “some digital conversations have also questioned FFI,” adding the following:
This is not the first time the FFI’s choice has caused controversy. In 2007, the FFI was sued by filmmaker Bhavna Talwar whose Dharm lost out to Eklavya, the Royal Guard as India’s choice for Oscar. She dropped the suit when the Academy accepted Eklavya as India’s entry.
Right now we also have to wonder if the Academy will accept Asghar Farhadi‘s The Past as Iran’s submission despite the fact it was produced, shot and financed in France. As I previously noted, the Fars News Agency (which is considered close to Iranian conservatives) has already criticized the decision saying, “It would have been preferable to select a purely Iranian film.”
The Academy will issue a shortlist soon enough, most likely by the end of next week. We’ll know more then. You can find the full list of films submitted so far right here.
