End of the Road for TZP in Oscar’s
Folks,
The Academy just announced the 9 Foreign Category films that made it to the next round and unfortunately Tare Zameen Par was not in that list. Here is the list
Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards®. Sixty-five films had originally qualified in the category.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Austria, “Revanche,” Gotz Spielmann, director;
Canada, “The Necessities of Life,” Benoit Pilon, director;
France, “The Class,” Laurent Cantet, director;
Germany, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” Uli Edel, director;
Israel, “Waltz with Bashir,” Ari Folman, director;
Japan, “Departures,” Yojiro Takita, director;
Mexico, “Tear This Heart Out,” Roberto Sneider, director;
Sweden, “Everlasting Moments,” Jan Troell, director;
Turkey, “3 Monkeys,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director.
Foreign Language Film nominations for 2008 are being determined in two phases.
The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 65 eligible films between mid-October and January 10. That group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.
The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five 2008 nominees by specially selected committees in New York and Los Angeles. The committee members will spend this Friday, Saturday and Sunday viewing three of the films each day.
The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Tags: World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
not surprised TZP was not even oscar material in a 1st place
aaj kaal harkoi apnie picture ko oscar par bhej detta hai
remember Paheli
so its between
Waltz with Bashir
Three Monkeys
Entres Les Murs(The Class)
@movie fan
i can understand ur reservations with TZP but at least dont compare it with Paheli..Paheli’s selection was controversial..at least TZP was an unanimous choice..try to respect other’s POVs..it wont hurt..good luck
bollywood needs to realize that they don’t have to send their movies to oscars just heck of it
and most imprtantly they are comepeting with other WORLD cinema specailly european cinema which is miles ahead of both bollywood and hollywood
also hollywood LOVES underdog themes that’s why Lagaan was nominated and that’s why SM is getting so many attention
@movie fan
i agree with ur points like we dnt need to send films fr oscars just fr the heck of it & cinema of other places like eaurope is miles ahead in terms of content & storytelling techniques but i also believe that TZP was good choice & we r maturing..to hv good cinema we wud need an audience that is ready & receptive enough fr ‘those kinda films’..the change has begun & begining to show already bro..tc
TZP didn’t deserve it anyway
I thought TZP was a decent choice, and also thought it unlikely to win. I thought it a good choice in relation to another function of submitting a film to the Foreign Language competition, which is to get the film seen by relatively central people in the US film world.
I think TZP was fresh for India, and well-done. As I understand it the rules for Foreign Language judges are strict – they have to see the films, maybe even at public screenings. I think TZP represents mainstream Hindi cinema well, and I think it shows “the west” something new and possibly surprising from “Bollywood.”
To me the other contender was Jodhaa Akbar. I don’t think it would have won either, and though it has much in it to admire, I don’t think it adds something to what “the west” knows about Indian cinema, whereas TZP does.
Whats with the script being sent to Oscar library? What does it even mean? Somewhere I read they sent “Kismat connection” script to oscar library.
Not surprised at all. Felt cheated after second viewing. Because had cried after first. Learnt separating message from cinema. And tzp message is good but cinema is pretentious.
what kind of badmash are u? please change ur handle
Sharif badmash. Or shall I say pretentious badmash. Or Wanna be. The one from kabhi haan kabhi naa. Googa Kapoor. Are we on for Saturday ?
TZP surely is pretentious. But frankly i was hoping it will somehow win the oscar!
What kind of an Indian film do you guys feel can win an oscar? Lets make it!!
wgy couldn’t they have nominated “Blue Umbrella”/ That should have got at least till the last 9, if not nominated.
why couldn’t they have nominated ‘Blue Umbrella’? That should have got at least till the last 9, if not nominated.
Vivek,
I have a question. The Canadian entry, I assume, is an english language film. Why is it competing in this section (foreign language film category)? If British films can compete with Hollywood ones in the mainstream category why not Canadian films? Could someone please clarify.
I have read many articles about so many movies, calling it pretentious. I am confused with the interpretation. Can some one be kind enough to illustrate how TZP is pretentious and also any other movie, just that i could make myself clear…
TZP was manipulative cinema at its best
Me too!!!I think Blue Umbrella would have been a better choice.Even earlier they should have sent Maqbool instead of Paheli and what not.In the 80’s and early 90’s we did’nt even get to know which film they sent to oscars!!Now with the electronic media everywhere all producers want to send their film to oscars just to get that extra publicity.
Forget about Oscars and all, but i for one don’t think TZP is pretentious in any way, it sticks to its core message and delivers it.
I wud call KANK as pretentious, for taking up an adultery theme, and making it look like a Raj meets Simran story, but TZP is no way pretentious.
It would have been pretentious, if some kinda romance angle, were added just for Aamir to run around trees and Swiss Alps, but i give kudos to Aamir for sticking to the subject, putting himself in background.
Also dont understand the fuss about emotional manipulation. I dont understand whats wrong in being emotionally affected. To date, i still get that lump in throat feeling when i see the climax of ET. Or the climax of Shawshank when Red reads the letter from Andy.
For me at end of day, is in what way the movie personally connected to me. TZP was one movie, no i am not a dyslexic, but being an average achiever in academics, i know what kind of response it evokes in our marks obsessed society.
TZP was a much better choice than Jeans or other stinkers they used to send for nominations. Fine it did not get a nomination, but i can list a dozen or more such movies, which deserved to win and were not even nominated. Neither Hitchcock or Tarantino or Tim Burton ever won an Oscar, but that does not in any way detract from their merits. So lets not take the Oscar as the benchmark for everything.
1956 Mother India Mehboob Khan (Won Nomination)
1962 Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam Abrar Alvi
1969 Deivamagan Kiran Kumar Chenna
1970 No submission
1971 Reshma Aur Shera Sunil Dutt
1972 Uphaar Sudhendu Roy
1973 Saudagar Sudhendu Roy
1974 Garam Hawa (Hot Winds) M.S. Sathyu
1975-1976 No submissions
1977 Manthan Shyam Benegal
1978 The Chess Players Satyajit Ray
1979 No submission
1980 Payal Ki Jhankaar Satyen Bose
1981-1983 No submissions
1984 Saaransh Mahesh Bhatt
1985 Saagar Ramesh Sippy
1986 Swathi Muthyam Vishwanath
1987 Nayagan Mani Ratnam
1988 Salaam Bombay! Mira Nair (Won Nomination)
1989 Parinda Vidhu Vinod Chopra
1990 Anjali Mani Ratnam
1991 Henna Randhir Kapoor
1992 Thevar Magan Bharathan
1993 Rudaali Kalpana Lazmi
1994 Bandit Queen Shekhar Kapur
1995 Kurudhipunal P.C. Sreeram
1996 Indian Shankar
1997 Guru Rajiv Anchal
1998 Jeans Shankar
1999 Earth Deepa Mehta
2000 Hey Ram Kamal Haasan
2001 Lagaan[1] Ashutosh Gowariker (Won Nomination)
2002 Devdas[2] Sanjay Leela Bhansali
2003 No submission
2004 Shwaas[3] Sandeep Sawant
2005 Paheli[4] Amol Palekar
2006 Rang De Basanti[5] Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
2007 Eklavya – The Royal Guard[6] Vidhu Vinod Chopra
2008 Taare Zameen Par[7] Aamir Khan
Not sure about the others, but TARANTINO CERTAINLY WON AN OSCAR in 1995 for Best Directed Screenplay aka Screenplay
@ Balaji
Find it hard to believe that Shatranj Ke Khilari was not even nominated, for me its as good as any European New Wave movie.
And any day, i wud rate Guru Dutt’s SBG, much higher than Mother India, Oscar or no Oscar.
@ Vivek
Yeah he won it for Pulp Fiction, but i was referring to Best Director thing.
Oscar bloopers is a separate topic in itself.
If Saaransh, Anjali and Nayagan cannot be even nominated then either the foriegn films are too good or the Academy is narrow minded. Considering the track record of the Academy, I would think the latter is more accurate. Heck, Nayagan was considered among the top 100 films of all time by Time and still it was not nominated.
If Kannathil Muthamittal ( Mani Rathnam ) would have been sent instead of Devdas in 2002 , it would have owned Oscars.
Raj – The Candian entry is in French
Balaji – there may be errors in the list you have given. I am absolutely certain that Bandit Queen was not the Indian entry in 1994, because it had run into a censor problem and was not certified/released in India before the Oscar deadline. It had already gained such international acclaim that people were saying that it would have easily won the Oscar that year.
Surprising that none of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s works have been sent to the Oscars. Those kind of movies have a chance of making it to the final cut. Can’t believe that they sent Jeans to the Oscars! What a joke!
@aditya
I just got the list from Wikipedia,so it might have some errors.
@the normal guy
I rate Kannathil Muthamittal as Manis best work. It is such an awesome movie. Its a shame that it wasnt sent to the oscars.
I think we should not send any of our movies to osacr..I don’t understand that by just getting nominated for oscar is a big thing!!..we make wonderful films every year..we can’t decide class of a movie just based on oscar nomination..I think movies like saransh,satya,ardh satya,do bhiga zamin,nayakan are classics…i am happy that those movies didn’t get nominated for osacrs..and i am also very very happy that TZP didn’t make it to osacar..it deserves better recognition than an oscar nomination…Oscar is just a pure american movies award..thts it…
I dont think we should question our films because we dont get a sanction from the West. We Indians loved TZP and thought it was good enough to represent our nation for the year.
My concern is, who decides what film to send? Barring Shwaas, in the past 9-10 years, why have we been sending only Hindi films? Winning an Oscar is very often the result of careful strategy and smart (read shrude) lobbying. Are we aware of how things work there? Do we know how to pick up our films for the Oscars? I’m not too sure.
i really don’t understand on what basis does one consider the feel, of a movie. TZP has brought a new
wave as parents are more aware that all children are not same.
@ Raj the canadian entry is french….i assume its a film from Quebec which is Canada’s french speaking state
slumdog might change the way they look at indian films….pity its made by a brit
Why Oscars matter? Because we have not one any. The day we start winning frequently, they will be just another award.
.
Same went for Olympics.
Yeah a decade back applied to Miss World/Universe. But when we started winning them, they don’t make big news anymore.
oops..it should be won and one @ 35. hehe…that was freudian slip. we have none, we need one :-)
I still don’t understand why there is such a hype around foreign language nominations in Oscar Awards. After all, they are just like any other awards. They are to Hollywood what Filmfare awards are to Bollywood. What’s so big deal in that? Indian movies are winning criticl acclaims and awards in internationally reputed film festivals and award functions. why dowe need a US approval for whatever we do? I think we Indians should concentrate more on making movies than speculating which movie will b sent to oscars. Also, sending Saagar, Jeans, Paheli and Devdas for any international competition shows the poor knowledge of the committee who sends the nominations. even a common normal person like me can understand it!
funnily enough i consider slumdog as pretentious manipulative cinema as well
by no means did it deserve best film according to me
All those people who claim that we don’t need Oscars to recognize our films, or that Oscars are for american movies, that they are biased etc are all cases of sour grapes
we could have sent in Damul, Thaneer thanner(tamil)
im in splits over Parinda , Henna and Indian
Aditya, Abhay..thanks for the clarification guys
from the whole list apart from waltz with bashir,
The Baader Meinhof Complex the german entry looks interesting. i guess i am a sucker for movies with bunch of anarchists ;) but it does make terrorists look rockstars
@Everybody- I know tht we r talking abt only movies..but no body here mentioned Bhanu Athaiya’s name anywhere, who is the only Indian after Satyajit Ray to get an Oscar.(Satyajit ray hasnt won any oscar, he was awarded for a lifetime achievement oscar award). She got the ascar for best costume designer for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi. She was also the brain behind the superb costumes in Lagaan & Lekin (She got a national award for tht as well)..and also swadesh, 1942 a love story, Chandni etc etc.
Surprisingly the most talked about costumes in RK films, she was the only one behind it. Raam Teri ganga Maili, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Mera Naam Joker…and Heena (No ang pradarshan..huh)
Wudever..but she has made india proud long back..n everybody is gaga over Rahman’s golden globe.
Anyways…to add more spice to this post..now when Aamir’s TZP is out from Oscar race, I am looking forward for another Ghajini Success party for completing 225 or 230 or 231.3 or 250 crore. As he vil be free now…n wud have cancelled all his plans for Oscar promotion….so lets hope some more ghajini parties lined up in mumbai.
~Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale.
This “Why we should care for oscars?” rhetoric is funny. American recognition might not be important, but oscar is a very good platform to take the film to the world audience. And really, comparing filmfare with oscars is just too much. Filmfare will never recognize films like No Country for Old Men,The Queen, Brokeback Mountain,Capote or Sideways as best picture potentials. None of the 2005 oscars best picture nominees were among the top 50 grossers that year. This is not possible for any film award in India.Films like The Lives of Others, all about my mother, No Man’s Land(Lets accept, it is a better film than Lagaan)won in foreign language category. Hence we cant say they do not award good, deserving films.
When it is true that we should concentrate on making and chosing better movies, sending the films to world platform is perfectly alright and oscar is quite an effective platform for that.
I feel sad when someone like Mr Amir khan who doesn’t take interest in awrads..but,he is carzy about oscars..i really don’t understand this…I think all indians are carzy about oscars..A.R rahaman got huge reception after receiving golden globe awrad .tht’s really crazy..it was like winning cricket world cup!!..we are so amercianized that we also named our film industry as bollywood..so fooolish!!..i strongly feel we should change the name…
Actually Bollywood is an absolutely correct name, it should only change to Indian Film Industry, the day we stop copying (without copyright) from US, Korean, Philipino, European cinema and also the day we stop lifting music from those places. Till that time I think Bollywood is the most ideal word for it.Plus I see no issue with Aamir craving an award where the count/selection is audited by independent accountants, as opposed to the set of “marketing and business networking shams” that happen in Bollywood, under the guise of awards (of course with some exceptions, which he probably respects as do a lot of others and also crave…very correctly).
Aamir khan is crap and so is bollywood as a whole. The sooner u guys realize it the better.
Shankar’s Indian and Jeans, sent for Oskar???,…
MY GOD!!!!!
Ram – I could not agree with you more. I mean we are talking about an industry where Rakhi Sawanth is a celebrity, Karan Johar is a successful director and Kabhi Alvidha Na Kehana is a great movie. Coming to TZP, as it is called, its just an ATTEMPT at a good movie & our standard unfortunately has come down so much, that we think this is the best and we flaunt it to the whole world.
BTW…I dont think the tamil or telugu film industry is any better either.
Can someone tell me when did Bollywood become the “Indian Film Fraternity”?
Vivek,
I am a student doing a project on cultural differences between two film companies. Is there any way I can email you with questions about your culture and what it is like doing movies in another country?