Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light. Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding. Even S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR. All these films own the tag of being India’s best shot at winning the country’s first best international feature (earlier, best film in a foreign language) prize at the Oscars.
Trouble is several popular acclaimed films never stood a chance in the past because they weren’t even selected to be India’s entry in this Oscar category. However, a recent and much-needed change by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) corrects this flaw. It ensures that multiple films from the same country can be considered for an Oscar nomination.
Traditionally, it’s the Film Federation of India (FFI), the top body of film producers, distributors, exhibitors and studio owners, that decides the country’s submission for the best international film category. FFI appoints members, who watch the submitted entries, weigh in and take the crucial call.
But many a times, their selections have come under severe scrutiny as they overlooked films thought to stand a better chance at qualifying—if not outright winning—given their familiarity with international voters. It meant that Batra’s and Kapadia’s films, which had made quite an impression in international festivals, never got to compete in a category where they would otherwise have been a shoo-in for nomination.
Now, the change by AMPAS stipulates that “a non-English language film can be submitted for consideration by winning a qualifying award at an international film festival”. The list includes six renowned festivals, namely the Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear), Busan International Film Festival (Best Film Award), Cannes Film Festival (Palme d’Or), Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto International Film Festival (Platform Award) and Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion).
What’s considered another welcome change is that the film and not the country will be recognised as the nominee of the category. “The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the film title and, if applicable, the country or region,” the Academy noted.
Winning top prizes at any of the abovementioned festivals is, of course, a tall order in itself, but at least Indian filmmakers, particularly those outside the mainstream circuit and big studio machinery, now know that they have a few more avenues to be in the reckoning than just hoping to make the cut with FFI.
It’s not that FFI’s decisions have been shocking or divisive entirely. Picking Chaitanya Tamhane’s stellar debut feature Court and the Aamir Khan-produced three hours-plus historical drama Lagaan were bold and fair decisions. In the past six years, FFI has chosen Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound; Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (Hindi); Malayalam film 2018: Everyone is a Hero; Pan Nalin’s Gujarati film Chhello Show, Tamil drama Koozhangal and Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Malayalam drama Jallikattu.
It’s a list of great films that showcases India’s linguistic diversity; yet getting into the final five in the Oscar category is considered more a strategic marketing race than one based on merit alone. It requires producers to ensure their work has been watched by as many Academy members as possible, and better still secure the backing of a few influential Academy members whose word has heft.
Sometimes even that doesn’t guarantee a nomination as the competition is extremely stiff. Take Homebound, for instance. It had renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese as an executive producer. He did a Q&A with Ghaywan to help promote the film during voting season. Homebound made it to the shortlist of 15 films but not into the famous five.
That India, one of the biggest film industries in the world and with a cinematic history of 113 years and running, has so far had only three films make it to the final five at the Oscars isn’t a fair assessment of its filmmaking prowess. Hopefully, the rule change gives an impetus to more ingenious filmmakers to dream big and correct this anomaly.
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