London – The Russian Film Academy has announced that after the start of the war with Ukraine, the country will not send films from the country to this year’s Oscars, in another act of isolation, without explaining why.
The decision was interpreted as a boycott of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is responsible for the award, and sparked a backlash from filmmakers and intellectuals.
For the first time since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the country did not attend the Oscars.
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On Tuesday, Pavel Chukhrai, chairman of Russia’s Oscar nomination committee, published a letter of resignation duplicated by state news agency Tass, saying the decision was made “behind”.
In an interview with Russian independent website Meduza, Chukhrai said the film academy’s decision was “illegal” and taken “one sided”.
He told the members of the organization “they were not only consulted, not even informed.
Also in reaction to the decision, filmmakers Andrey Zvyagintsev and Nikolai Dostai left the Russian Oscar committee. There are others who have been disconnected, according to Russian media, but the names have not been confirmed.
According to Tass, director Alexei Uchitel, another member of the committee, urged the filmmakers to hold an emergency meeting with the president of the Film Academy to “immediately rectify the situation”.
“It’s still not clear to me what’s going on,” Uchitel said. “All committee members were given a list of films eligible for nomination and meeting dates were discussed.
But suddenly the news exploded. “I think they did something unethical to say the least,” he said.
According to the film director, Russia should be nominated for an Oscar. “In the current situation, we have to show that the Russian film industry still exists and we need to participate in the film,” the filmmaker said.
Russia has already won an Oscar for best foreign film.
There were 122 films vying for the Russian Academy Award nomination this year.
In 2021, Russia nominated Kira Kovalenko’s production of “Unclenching Fists” for the award. The film was not included in the final list of nominees.
Country won the Best Foreign Language Film award in 1994 for Burnt by the Sun.
The film tells the story of a distraught Red Army officer and his wife with the return of a former lover during the Stalinist repression in the 1930s.
your director, Nikita Mikhalkov, 76, heads It supports the Russian Film Producers Union and President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine.
Tass told his agency: Russia had nothing to gain by participating in this year’s Oscars, and suggested the creation of an equivalent award for countries in the post-Soviet region.
“It seems to me that it really doesn’t make sense to choose a movie that represents Russia in a country that currently denies the existence of Russia,” he said.
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source: Noticias
