Amit Masurkar’s acclaimed political satire Newton’s Oscar journey ends as the Rajkumar Rao-starrer has not made it to the list of films shortlisted in the Best Foreign Language Film category announced on Thursday.
Nine films have advanced in the race for the Academy Awards, of which five will make it to the final list of nominees that will be announced with the rest of the categories on January 23, reported Deadline. The movies that have made the cut are A Fantastic Woman (Chile), In the Fade from Germany, the Cannes Palme D’or winner The Square, On Body and Soul from Hungary, Loveless from Russia, The Wound from South Africa, Foxtrot from Israel, Felicite from Senegal and The Insult from Lebanon.
India has never won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and its hopes were pinned on political satireNewton when it was selected as India’s official submission under the category in September.
Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father from Cambodia and Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats Per Minute) from France were among the surprise omissions from the list. There were a record 92 submissions this year.
Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1985), Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1985) and Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Lagaan (2002) are the only three Indian films to have made it to the final list of nominees for this category. None of them has won.
According to a Variety report, the shortlisted films in the foreign language category are selected by a general committee along with a 20-person executive committee spearheaded by producer and foreign committee chair Mark Johnson. The final five nominees are then selected by the foreign committee.
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