While the buzz around Rima Das’s Oscar entry, Village Rockstars, was strong, the film has not managed to make it through the final list of films nominated for the Best Foreign Film award. The film was India’s official entry to the 91st Academy awards, which will take place on 25 February 2019.
The shortlist for the category was announced on 17 December by the Academy for Motion Pictures and Sciences, leaving out Das’s film as well as the Norwegian film, What Will People Say, featuring Adil Hussain.
The latest list includes Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Polish drama Cold War, Colombian film Birds of Passage, South Korean mystery drama by Lee Chang-Dong Burning, German drama Never Look Away, and Japanese film Shoplifters. The list also includes films from Kazhakhstan called Ayka, and Lebanon called Capernaum.
A total of 87 films, including Village Rockstars, had been considered for the category of the Best Film in Foreign Language award.
So far Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1989) and Lagaan (2001) are the only Indian films to have made it into the Oscar shortlist.