India's 'Village Rockstars' out of Oscars race, nine films advance to next stage
Los Angeles, Dec 18 : "Village Rockstars", India's official entry to the 91st Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category, is no longer a part of the Oscars race, with only nine films out of 87 making it to the next round of voting.
Directed by Rima Das, the Assamese feature, revolved around a group of village children aspiring to become rockstars.
India has so far drawn a blank in the Best Foreign Film category. The last Indian film that made it to the final five in the list was Ashutosh Gowariker's "Lagaan" in 2001.
"Mother India" (1958) and "Salaam Bombay" (1989) are the other two Indian movies to have made it to the top five.
Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuaron's universally-loved, semi-biographical, black-and-white drama "Roma" is in the list alongside eight other films.
"Roma", which is generating a lot of awards buzz and may also earn nominations in the best film category if critics are to be believed, will face tough competition from previous Oscar-winner Pawel Pawlikowski's "Cold War". He had won the Oscar for his 2013 film "Ida"
Japan's "Shoplifters", for which director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palm d'Or, and Lebanon's "Capernaum", which won the jury prize, can also be called frontrunners for the recognition.
Other films in the list are "Birds of Passage" from Colombia, "The Guilty" from Denmark, "Never Look Away" from Germany, Kazakhstan's "Ayka" and South Korea's Burning .
Academy members from all branches screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 10.
The group's top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy's Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist. Academy members eligible to participate in the Nominations round of voting will view the shortlisted films. Members must see all nine films before casting their ballots.
The 91st Oscar Awards will be held on February 24, Sunday, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
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NDA's win in Bihar Assembly bypolls a matter of concern: Prashant Kishor
Patna, Nov 23: Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor on Saturday dubbed as "a matter of concern" the NDA's win in assembly by-polls in Bihar despite "failure" of the BJP-led coalition to end the state's chronic backwardness during it's decades-long rule.
Talking to reporters here shortly after the results were out, Kishor also drew succour from the fact that his fledgling Jan Suraaj won "10 per cent" of the total votes polled in four seats, but rubbished the claim that it had played a role in the RJD's defeat in three of these.
"RJD is a 30-year-old party. The son of its state president finished third. Can Jan Suraaj be faulted for that? In Belaganj all Muslim votes went to the JD(U) candidate. In Imamganj, the Jan Suraaj cut into NDA votes. Else, the victory margin of (Union minister) Jitan Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha would have been bigger", asserted Kishor.
Notably, Imamganj, a reserved seat, was retained by Manjhi's daughter-in-law Deepa, who defeated the RJD candidate by a thin margin of less than 6,000 votes. Jan Suraaj candidate Jitendra Paswan finished third, polling more than 37,000 votes.
When pointed out that in three of the four seats, candidates of Jan Suraaj had polled less than one-sixth of the total votes and ran the risk of losing their deposits, Kishor shot back "That should not be a matter of concern (chinta ki baat). If there is a matter of concern, it is the ability of the NDA to make a clean sweep despite having ruled Bihar for so long and "failed" to end the state's backwardness".
The IPAC founder, who had a brief stint in the JD(U), insisted that the party's supremo Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, was a "spent force" and its candidate, former MLC Manorama Devi, had won on her own steam.
"We have always said that our fight is with NDA, not with RJD despite its claim of being the largest party in Bihar.....(but) Nitish Kumar is no factor. His party polled just about 11 per cent of total votes", said Kishor.
About his own party's inability to make a mark, Kishor said "We have secured 10 per cent votes..... in seats where Jan Suraaj had no presence since these areas were yet to be covered by my padyatra. Also, please note that we got our poll symbol after filing of nomination papers was over".
He also maintained that the Jan Suraaj will go solo in the assembly polls due next year when it will contest "all 243 seats".
"We were initially written off but by garnering about 10 per cent votes, in a state known to vote along predictable caste lines, we have proved a point. In the next few months we shall be strengthening the organization to ensure that vote share of the Jan Suraaj improves", he said.
