George Clooney in Michael Clayton, which released in Mumbai last Friday

No city for Oscar movies. No, that’s not the sequel to the Coen Brothers’ Oscar favourite No Country for Old Men but the state of Calcutta in the run-up to the 80th Academy Awards.

Even as the golden statuettes are being given out at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre (Monday morning our time), Calcutta cinebuffs have again been largely overlooked. Apart from a couple of big-budget blockbusters like Ratatouille and The Bourne Ultimatum, it’s been a no-show for the Oscar-nominated films in the city.

And yet again, other metros like Mumbai and Delhi have got a better deal. Films like Michael Clayton (seven nominations, including Best Picture), American Gangster (two nominations) and Eastern Promises (nominated for Best Actor) have already released there, while Sweeney Todd (three nominations) and Atonement (seven nominations) are expected in the next couple of weeks.

Calcutta can only play catch-up. “Mumbai and Delhi are the main markets for English movies and when it comes to niche films, which usually get nominated for the Oscars, it’s all the more applicable,” Vikramjit Roy, the head of publicity for Sony Pictures India, tells Metro. “So, the choice of release is more product dependent than city dependent.”

Calcuttans at least got to watch the Oscar movies the last couple of years — Brokeback Mountain, Crash, The Departed, Babel — but this year it’s all quite uncertain. “Michael Clayton and Atonement are the two movies which may still come to Calcutta but there’s no information on the release dates,” reveals an INOX spokesperson.

Till that gets sorted out, the two options for Calcuttans are the neighbourhood DVD rental library and the bylanes of Chandni market for pirated prints. Of the two, hiring the just-released international DVDs (for Rs 100 a day) from Beckbagan’s Raja Electronics or Rowland Road’s Cinema Paradiso is a better bet. In fact, the demand for the Oscar movies at Raja is so high that they have even got a list of the nominees put up on the wall for reference. “We have got almost all the nominated films and are expecting No Country for Old Men in another week,” reveals a store attendant.