India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category in the 90th Academy Awards, Amit Masurkar’s critically acclaimed Newton, is out of the Oscars race.
On Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAAS) announced that nine films have made the cut. The movies that have advanced in the race are Chile's A Fantastic Woman, the winner of the Cannes Palme D’or The Square, Hungary’s On Body and Soul, Germany's In the Fade, Russia's Loveless, South Africa's The Wound, Israel's Foxtrot, Lebanon's The Insult and Senegal's Felicite.
Five films will be chosen from this list, which will be announced on January 23.
The surprise omissions in this list were Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father from Cambodia and France’s official submission, Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats Per Minute). There were a record 92 submissions this year.
India has never won an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category and hopes were pinned on the political satire Newton. The film, which stars Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi in key roles, detailed the foibles of holding a democratic election in a Maoist violence-hit village in Chhattisgarh.
The last Indian language film that made it to the final five in this category was Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan in 2001.
The other films that have made it to the top five are Mother India in 1958 and Salaam Bombay in 1989.
Critically celebrated Tamil film Visaranai, directed by Vetrimaaran, was the country’s official submission to the Oscars last year. But it failed to make the cut as well.
According to Variety, the films shortlisted are selected by a general committee along with a 20-person executive committee, spearheaded by producer and foreign committee chair, Mark Johnson. The five final nominees are then selected by the foreign committee.