An Afghan film has been nominated for Oscar Award and is among 81 countries ranging from Vietnam to first time participating Paraguay for the foreign-language Oscar.
According to the Academy Award organizers the deadline for submissions – one per country – was October 1 and the number of films is slightly below the record 83 submitted last year.
The Afghan film ‘Utopia’ is about an Afghan woman who travels to Britain for artificial insemination, while Vietnam’s “Jackpot” is about a lottery ticket vendor’s moral dilemma.
Produced by Malalai Zekriya who is also playing the lead role, the 95-minute movie has been filmed in Afghanistan, India and Scotland.
The Academy Awards is scheduled to be held on February 28 in Los Angeles and will televised live in more than 225 countries around the globe.
This comes as another Afghan film ‘Buzkashi Boys’ was shortlisted for Oscar Awards in 2013.
Produced with a joint international and Afghan crew ‘Buzkashi Boys’ won the best drama at the LA Shorts Fest, which made it eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award.
The film is based on the story of two young Afghan boys who are dreaming to become professional players of Buzkashi sport, a game that somewhat resembles polo: Horseback riders wrangle to get a headless goat carcass into a circular goal at one end of the field.
