How does foreign content get to Oscars? - Page 2

Originally posted by: semantic.error

I think vcs has pretty much covered everything very nicely.

Two other things. One Oscars are primarily a self-fulfilling prophecy. People need to believe you are going to win the Oscar before the first poster even comes out. Otherwise you are not even going to be in contention. This is especially true with foreign films. Where most nominated directors already have previous nominated work. New breakouts are rare. It will happen with Rajamouli's next too.

Something like EEAAO is very rare at the Oscars, and even then A24 campaigned the hell out of it.

Second, there's an increased push towards films with more contemporary relevant themes (class divide, immigrants, fascism etc) as well as commercially successful films.

I think RRR fit both bills will. And it would have done well in the foreign language category. But it's not the kind of film that would win the main awards. It's not exactly the kind of thought provoking piece or technical achievement that Oscar usually goes for.

Exactly, Babylon had a lot of buzz even before release because of he director but fizzled out.EEAAO was a lot of lobbying to get a breakthrough.

Oscars are not some global excellence award, they will award what they relate to and find original.or appealing.

Spot on about the themes, rrr would have made it to to the final nom in the foreign film category but even there beating a war movie would have been tough, maybe a couple of other categories if very lucky. Even avatar got only one award.

Ssr if he sustains has a chance to breakthrough like any lee, bong Jon etc that’s all

For all factors to work out for a Indian movie will be rare.

In a 2006 interview with Aaj Tak's Seethi Baat anchor Prabhu Chawla, SRK replied to a question about how India could get an Oscar...(I post it despite the Russian subtitles as it is the only complete version...it's in the second half of the video, after a reply to Prabhu's "toyboys and toygirls")... his replies are still relevant more than 15 years later...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwzsmNog3Qk

Originally posted by: Clochette

In a 2006 interview with Aaj Tak's Seethi Baat anchor Prabhu Chawla, SRK replied to a question about how India could get an Oscar...(I post it despite the Russian subtitles as it is the only complete version...it's in the second half of the video, after a reply to Prabhu's "toyboys and toygirls")... his replies are still relevant more than 15 years later...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwzsmNog3Qk

great share clochette,

he also says that he spent and had a PR agency for paheli

aamir also did

the point is the theme probably didnt appeal and it didnt get the traction, imo paheli was a smaty choice, aesthetic and exotic but it is not a stand out film.

lagaan and rrr are, and also the anti colonialist themes are more universally appealing

but he makes the right points, the committee which chooses in india needs to be somebody who knows that mindset, you make money on a film, spend it and try to win

i mean you never have anybody like arr who actually got the oscar or shekhar kapur on that commitee 😆

he also says that they prefer serious films in foreign film category, i guess like wome "white man burden" 😆

i guess lots of ppl like aamir and srk tried, finally ssr succeeded

i also feel we need star directors, stars can only take something some distance not the whole

basically rrr was also rewarded because they wanted to give rajamouli something, they like directors to breakout

And one shouldn't forget that Rajamouli was already a well known name in northamerican filmcircuits because of Bahubali 2. Remember the rave this movie had also among non desi people!

So, Rajamouli's skills as a filmmaker were not unknown and a bonus in doing the circuit of award functions (submitting RRR to every decently prestigious election).

There are Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Assamese movies on the list of Indian submissions to the Oscars (besides the Hindi ones)... last year it was Pan Nalin's Gujarati "Last Film Show" (the same Pan Nalin who conceived Dhordashan's Wagle Ki Duniya, did a documentary on SRK for the French TV channel Canal Plus, made the "Angry Indian Goddesses" and published a BTS of the "Karan Arjun" making when Pathaan reached the 1000 cr). ❤️

Yes, absolutely

But the reality is I don’t think it is possible for majority of movies of most languages to secure funding for campaign which I heard is quite significant 80 crores is the rumour

Vetrimaaran who is a great director said he didn’t have the funding to mount a campaign for his Tamil visaranai movie ( a great film)

Now in Korea the govt funds but in a developing country like india we cannot expect it, srk says the same in the interview

So only those filmmakers who make huge money can spend on this which is why aamir and rajamouli did it.

You are correct ssr made 1500 crores on bb so could spend it

Even if udham Singh is great, why will a producer spend more than what they made on campaign, unless the benefits are very tangible, for just holding an award.

for ssr the benefits are somewhat tangible, breakthrough for him, he got Cameron to offer him a possible collaboration, it is totally worth it for him

^^

80 Cr is on the lower end. Standard campaigns cost twice as much.

It's also as you said, there's too many moving variables. For instance, Parasite just was the right film at the right time with the whole Korean wave. Unlike your other Korean Cannes breakout Burning or Decision to Leave which were completely snubbed.

Plus the international slot for nominations this year was with All Quiet on The Western Front. Like last year it was with Drive My Car. They don't usually nominate more than one international film in general categories.

Originally posted by: semantic.error

^^

80 Cr is on the lower end. Standard campaigns cost twice as much.

It's also as you said, there's too many moving variables. For instance, Parasite just was the right film at the right time with the whole Korean wave. Unlike your other Korean Cannes breakout Burning or Decision to Leave which were completely snubbed.

Plus the international slot for nominations this year was with All Quiet on The Western Front. Like last year it was with Drive My Car. They don't usually nominate more than one international film in general categories.

some telugu channels reported that amount,

if double it is huge, 80-90% of films on an avg dont even make that much money, so basically only 10% may be able to spend

when we talk about malayalam movies which have good acclaim, the highest grossing movie there made 160+ crores (acc to imdb, not even share), so how will they spend

you are totally correct, it is a crapshoot as somebody said

many factors have to align

descision to leave had great acclaim but didnt make it

which is why you need the financial strength to take the risk, it is just not worth it for most

Popularity..if a movie is popular and has good critic they will select it. I thought Top Gun Maverick was going to get more but it seems the Academy doesn't like Tom so much..

On YouTube someone claimed Rajamouli spent 90 crores to take RRR to Oscars.

I wonder why any Bollywood filmmaker did not spend that much.

So films from other nations can also compete in other categories beyond just foreign ones? It is not new then?

Why Indian ones did not try further then?

Like we had to make do with Mother India and Lagaan only in foreign language category.

Otherwise we had lot of Indian content that could have probably been sent to Oscars.

Or had a shot at winning. I mean let's face it, India has seen better songs than Naatu.

I was just curious why it happened only now and never happened earlier and why it is so rare for Indian films to be nominated at Oscars in any category.