However, British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s ‘Santosh’ starring Indian actors Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, representing the UK, has made it to the shortlist, along with France’s ‘Emilia Prez’, ‘I’m Still Here’ (Brazil), ‘Universal Language’ (Canada). , “Waves” (Czech Republic), “The Girl with the Needle” (Denmark), and “The Seed of the Sacred” from Germany Fig”.
Other contenders are “Touch” (Iceland), “Nicap” (Ireland), “Vermiglio” (Italy), “Flo” (Latvia), “Armond” (Norway), “From Ground Zero” (Palestine), “Dahomey”. “(Senegal), and “How to Earn Millions Before Grandma Dies” (Thailand).
According to the Academy, 85 countries or regions submitted films eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.
Titled “Lost Ladies” in English, the film is a mildly subversive feminist drama set in rural India in the early 2000s. Based on the story of Biplav Goswami, the screenplay and dialogues of ‘Lapata Ladies’ are written by Sneha Desai. Divyanidi Sharma has written more dialogues.
“Missing Ladies” follows two brides who are swapped during a train ride on their wedding day. It stars Nitanshi Goyal and Pratibha Ranta as Phool and Jaya the bride respectively, and Sparsh Srivastava plays the hapless bride in search of her wife.
The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and was released on March 1. It is backed by Rao’s Kindling Productions, Aamir Khan Productions and Jyoti Deshpande of Jio Studios.
In September, the Film Federation of India (FFI) unanimously selected “Missing Ladies” as India’s official entry to the Oscars from a list of 29 films including Bollywood hit “Animal”, Malayalam National Award winner “Attam” and Cannes winner “All”. We imagine as light.”
At the time, the FFI’s 13-member all-male jury drew controversy on social media for their quotes about the film. Many on social media said that this brief message went against the message the film was trying to convey.
The federation’s quote reads: “Indian women are a strange mix of submission and dominance. In a world of well-defined, powerful characters, A Missing Woman (Hindi) perfectly captures this diversity, albeit in a semi-beautiful world. A tongue-in-cheek way.” .”
The makers also unveiled a new poster of the film with its English title “Lost Ladies” last month as the film kicks off its campaign for the upcoming awards ceremony. It also stars Chhaya Kadam, Ravi Kishan and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma.
“Lagaan”, set in the pre-independence era, was the last Indian film to enter the top five nominations in the Best International Feature Film category (formerly called Best Foreign Film) at the Oscars 2002.
Earlier, only two other films made it to the final five and they were Nargis starrer “Mother India” and Mira Nair’s “Salam Bombay!”
Last year, the peppy, foot-tapping chartbuster “Natu Natu” from SS Rajamouli’s Telugu period action film “RRR”, won the Academy Award in the Best Original Song category along with “The Elephant Whisperers”, directed and produced by Karthik Gonsalves. Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment won the Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17. Late night host and comedian Conan O’Brien will host the Academy Awards on March 2 at the Dolby Theater in Ovation Hollywood, Los Angeles.