India out of Oscars race

Indian regional films "Court", "Jalam", "RangiTaranga" and "Nachom-ia Kumpasar", which were vying for a spot in different categories of the upcoming 88th Academy Awards, couldn't make it to the nominations list of this year's Oscars.

The nominees for the 88th Academy Awards were announced here on Thursday by Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, actor John Krasinski and filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee.

While filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane's debut Marathi film "Court" was earlier out of the Best Foreign Language Film category of the prestigious awards gala losing its battle against films like "Embrace of the Serpent" (Colombia), "A War" (Denmark), "Mustang" (France), "Son of Saul" (Hungary), and "Theeb" (Jordan), hopes were high from "Jalam", "RangiTaranga" and "Nachom-ia Kumpasar", which were competing in categories including Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

However, none of them were able to make it to the Oscar nominations.

Malayalam movie "Jalam" and Indo-Australian film "Salt Bridge", which were included in the long list of the Best Original Song category, have been dropped from the nomination list. The tracks which are included in the category are "Simple song 3" ("Youth"), "Manta ray" ("Racing Extinction"), "Writing's on the wall" ("Spectre"), "Till it happens to you" ("The Hunting Ground") and "Earned it" ("Fifty Shades of Grey").

Both the films along with Konkani movie "Nachom-ia Kumpasar" were amongst 112 films that were contending for a spot in the Best Original Score category.

They lost the chance of bringing India the golden statuette to "The Hateful Eight", "Sicario", "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", "Carol" and "Bridge of Spies" -- a Spielberg and Reliance Entertainment Film production.

India has never won an Oscar, even though "Mother India", "Salaam Bombay!" and "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India" were nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category in different years.

Though none of the Indian films could make it to the nominations list of the prestigious awards, Indian-American Pixar artist and director Sanjay Patel's animated short film "Sanjay's Super Team" managed to get nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category.

It is up against "Bear Story", directed by Gabriel Osorio, "World of Tomorrow", helmed by Don Hertzfeldt, Richard Williams's "Prologue" and "We Can't Live Without Cosmos", directed by Konstantin Bronzit.

The 88th Oscars will be held on February 28 at the Dolby Theatre here.

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)