Literally no Indian film has ever "won" an Oscar in Film category! - Page 2

Nudity is a must to win oscar i think. They dislike those innocent decent movies with no skin show.

Originally posted by: diasingh2

Shilpa went to UK Big Brother and Oscars is presented by the United States, so it seems more like a big conspiracy theory to me. In fact, the UK film industry itself submit their films in Best International Feature Film category. So I don't see any direct correlation of Shilpa's racism controversy (that happened a year before and was perfectly settled within months of her win) with the win of Slumdog.

Slumdog had an international appeal (despite being set in India and having several members of Indian cast) and made its way to pop culture at that time. It won 4 awards, out of 5 nominations, thanks to ARR, Gulzar and Pokkuty. Indians celebrated it because the recipients were Indians.

Life of Pi (a similar example) was also a very culturally popular film at its time. It won 4 Academy awards, but none of the recipient were Indians, so no one celebrated it, unlike Slumdog.

RRR got only 1 word, which was for its "Naatu naatu" song. Whether it deserved or not, is a separate discussion, but it indeed did win because of its international popularity. It was submitted for 14 categories, but made it to just one.

I agree with the fact that the cultural impact, popularity and uproar (as you said it) do impact the decision making at the Oscars, but I don't think country-level politics would play a large role, especially now. Because Academy Awards themselves are on crossroads with American politics since a decade or so, particularly due to the growing popularity (and eventual victory) of Trump.

@ Bold: Good point.

@ Red: My point exactly. It was submitted for so many categories, but somewhere I feel like the Academy folks chose the one that they liked best and that would give it some recognition.

@ Purple: If you think about it though, that does kind of prove my point. During the Trump term, think about the countries that were on the list and won the Best International Film or whatever the award is called - I think one year it was Chile, one year Iran, and one year Hungary. I forget the 4th year. Even in nominations, I think most were countries that were partners of the US and that Trump either had no issues with or he actually supported. The same will happen in these next 4 years...mark my words. I'm not saying that politics is the only player in these awards, but when you have such international prestige, then political impacts are bound to happen. There's no way around it.

We objectively know which film had the better shot. AWIAL had festival circuit buzz. Literally every Pundit had All We Imagine as Light making the Oscar nomination this year. It made a best director nomination at the Globes, that almost never happens with foreign language films. LL had none of that. And then the jury members have the never to call AWIAL a poorly made film because they know they made the wrong choice.

Is the FFI process to pick a mediocre film that represents some arbitrary construct of Indian tastes? Or to pick a film that has reliably shown it can win over international audiences and has a very strong shot? If it's the former why not send Animal or Pushpa or Pathaan or something? Definitely a better indication of Indian tastes.

Also talking about the Oscar selection process being politically biased against Indian cinema, (which sure, the Oscar selection process is by design tougher for Asian cinema as the precursor is mostly Western film festivals) without acknowledging the political machinations that clearly went into LL being selected over AWIAL is hilarious.

Why do people even care about these awards? Ye khud ki bhi ekdum faaltu movies ko hi awards dete hain.

Originally posted by: MostlyHarmIess

Also talking about the Oscar selection process being politically biased against Indian cinema, (which sure, the Oscar selection process is by design tougher for Asian cinema as the precursor is mostly Western film festivals) without acknowledging the political machinations that clearly went into LL being selected over AWIAL is hilarious.

bold: agree...and it happens far too often. And also yes, the Oscars are (still) more favourable to Western filmindustries. India istn't the only country that never got a foreign film Oscar, btw... Lobbying (and film festivals' apraisals) is a crucious part of getting acknowledged for non-Western movies, I think.

Originally posted by: MostlyHarmIess

We objectively know which film had the better shot. AWIAL had festival circuit buzz. Literally every Pundit had All We Imagine as Light making the Oscar nomination this year. It made a best director nomination at the Globes, that almost never happens with foreign language films. LL had none of that. And then the jury members have the never to call AWIAL a poorly made film because they know they made the wrong choice.

Is the FFI process to pick a mediocre film that represents some arbitrary construct of Indian tastes? Or to pick a film that has reliably shown it can win over international audiences and has a very strong shot? If it's the former why not send Animal or Pushpa or Pathaan or something? Definitely a better indication of Indian tastes.

Because the audience only cares about creating a good-for-nothing "mudda" out of anything these days.
There's no "objectivity" involved with the audience. If AWIL was sent and didn't get selected, then the same people would've cried and said, "why didn't they just send LL?"

While I do agree that the FFI jury was biased against AWIL over LL this time, they should be called out on that, LL itself was not a bad candidate.

Just because LL didn't get selected at the Oscars, doesn't make it a mediocre film. LL had a better reach because of its grass-rooted story line, whereas AWIL was a little more 'niche', so it didn't break the barriers of mass audience. Both films were brilliant.

@bold
This line doesn't make any sense.

Originally posted by: DobbyDeol

Why do people even care about these awards? Ye khud ki bhi ekdum faaltu movies ko hi awards dete hain.

I definitely agree that we don't need the validation of Oscars.

But people are crying over LL not making it to the Oscars, as if we've been winning awards every year.

Suddenly LL is a bad and mediocre people for some Indians, because it didn't make it to the Oscars? We Indians are our own enemies because we are only good at fighting amongst ourselves.

And don't get me started on the comparison with AWIL. It's like comparing Apples and Oranges. Why can't both films be loved?

Originally posted by: DobbyDeol

Why do people even care about these awards? Ye khud ki bhi ekdum faaltu movies ko hi awards dete hain.

I agree these awards are faaltu

Originally posted by: diasingh2

Why do we see more people crying about LL not making it to Oscars, instead of celebrating AWIL for getting accolades at Cannes and getting two GG nominations?

Because the audience only cares about creating a good-for-nothing "mudda" out of anything these days.
There's no "objectivity" involved with the audience. If AWIL was sent and didn't get selected, then the same people would've cried and said, "why didn't they just send LL?"

While I do agree that the FFI jury was biased against AWIL over LL this time, they should be called out on that, LL itself was not a bad candidate.

Just because LL didn't get selected at the Oscars, doesn't make it a mediocre film. LL had a better reach because of its grass-rooted story line, whereas AWIL was a little more 'niche', so it didn't break the barriers of mass audience. Both films were brilliant.

@bold
This line doesn't make any sense.

I literally laid out for you why LL was a bad candidate for the award. Mine or your personal taste is not the barometer for the quality of a candidate. It had no film circuit buzz, it made no splash with Western critics, and even the Indian critics firmly put it in the 3-3.5 star range. AWIAL has excellent reviews, a demonstrable record of wins at dozens of precursor awards, and is absolutely killing it at the Oscar pre-trail. In what world are these two films substitutable?

If no one is allowed to bring up the obvious issues with the selection process, how will there ever be any changes?