I am so excited that Chhello Show has been chosen as India’s submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards. This film is so special and has been loved by audiences around the world. I am grateful to the Film Federation of India and the jury for this opportunity to showcase our film on a global stage.
In October 2021, the Chhello Show won the Golden Spike at the 66th Valladolid International Film Festival. This victory is significant because it confirms that Chhello Show is one of the best films of its kind.
Within the soulful Gupta, Last Film Show finds its center – a young man set in the Indian state of Gujarat, where he was raised. Ehrlich called it a “coming-of-age story” with “an ethereal take on the magic of movies”. Nalin’s love for film shines through every scene of this semi-autobiographical fable, as we see him grow and grapple with the bittersweet reality that his dreams may never be realized. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Last Film Show is an unforgettable film that speaks to the power of cinema to endure – even in the face of heartbreak. As soon as we set eyes on nine-year-old Samay strolling along the railroad tracks by his house, we can tell he’s special. His father Bapuji (Dipen Raval) sells tea to passengers on rickety trains that stop nearby, and Samay is already precocious and compulsively watchable. He doesn’t yet know what cinema is, but his life is already full of it.
Of the two films being speculated as India’s entry for the Oscars, RRR has gained the most traction in the West. The SS Rajamouli epic found a wider audience base when it released on Netflix, with international media, filmmakers and fans taking note of the filmmaker’s imaginative storytelling.
Rajamouli has even attended multiple screenings in the US and addressed audiences as part of his efforts to boost RRR’s chances at winning an Oscar.
Vinothraj PS’s Tamil drama Koozhangal (Pebbles) was selected as India’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category last year, but it didn’t make the final cut. However, Indian documentary feature Writing With Fire did make it to the final list and even received a nomination at the 94th edition of the Academy Awards. This was a huge achievement for the film’s directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, as it was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for the Oscars. Ultimately, Writing With Fire lost out to Summer Of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) but just being nominated is an incredible accomplishment.
No Indian film has ever won an Oscar, though three have made it to the final five in the best international feature category. The last was Ashutosh Gowariker’s Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan in 2001; the others are Mother India (1958) and Salaam Bombay (1989).
The awards are scheduled to be presented in fifteen categories.
It’s the big night! The 95th Academy Awards ceremony is being held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 12, 2023. Fifteen awards will be presented throughout the evening. Period. End of Sentence., a rural India-set film on menstruation, is nominated for the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi and co-produced by Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment. This could be their big night!
