The 94th Academy Awards, that will be held in Los Angeles on Sunday night, is in many ways a ceremony of progressive firsts this year. Writing With Fire, a documentary feature directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh created history as the first ever nomination from India in that category. Closer home, Bhutan’s Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, sealed a surprise spot on the Best International Feature Film category, a first for the country.
These are but two examples of how the Academy has embraced international feature films and artistes way beyond the constraints of one or two categories. In this year’s relatively straightforward line-up of nominations in the Screenplay category, two international titles have secured a place. In the Original Screenplay category, The Worst Person in The World screenwriters Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt scooped a place over industry favourite (and previous winner) Aaron Sorkin for his work on Being the Ricardos. In the Adapted Screenplay category, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe’s Drive My Car, a three-hour long adaptation of the titular Haruki Murakami short story, has bagged a spot. Additionally, it is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director for Hamaguchi and Best International Film.
South Korean film 'Parasite' won Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards while 'Roma', from Mexico, scored 10 nominations at the 91st Academy Awards
SLOWLY GAINING GROUND
Drive My Car’s nomination in the Best Picture list this year comes after Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma (2018) and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019). Unlike its predecessors which benefited heavily from strong distribution by Netflix and Neon respectively, Drive My Car rode all the way from Cannes to the Academy’s top line-up solely based on critical acclaim. Featured more than any other international feature in the Top 10 year-end lists of the year, it is also the first non-English language film to win at the three major film critics circles — Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics’ Circle.
Another ecstatic first would be Flee, a Danish animated documentary, which has been nominated in three categories: Best International Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature. This makes Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s feature the first to be nominated in these three different categories at once. Flee extends the streak of Honeyland (2020) and Collective (2019), both of which were nominated in two categories together — Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature.
The scenario was not always like this. It was the 2010s that brought about a marked difference with the reverence for international feature films and artistes. In more ways than one, Greece’s Dogtooth landing in the Best Foreign Language Feature Film category is a watershed moment here. A bizarre, violent take on adolescence and home schooling, Dogtooth paved the way for edgier, complex submissions to the Academy. There had been multiple snubs in the past, most memorably Brazil’s City of God and Romania’s 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Post Dogtooth, a slew of international titles made its way to the list, including Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (Iran), Michael Haneke’s Amour (Austria) and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida (Poland).
ECLECTIC MIX
If one takes a look at the Best Director race in the past decade, it tells that only one American had won — Damien Chazelle for La La Land (2016). The rest of the winners came from all across the world — Taiwan’s Ang Lee, Mexico’s triple haul with Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro, and South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho. This indicates an important shift in the way international artistes have been recognised by the Academy, making space for culturally diverse stories and characters that tie us together. While the above factors do paint a problem with the limited amount of inclusivity in its long-standing history, the point lies in the fact that change is steadily happening.
