The hastily renewed Russian "Oscar committee", which selects the domestic contender for the "Oscar", has now received applications from the creators and distributors of twenty-one (!) Films. The main struggle unfolded between "Kukushka" ...

The hastily renewed Russian "Oscar Committee", which selects the domestic contender for the Oscars, has now received applications from the creators and distributors of twenty-one (!) Films

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The main struggle unfolded between Alexander Rogozhkin's Cuckoo and Andron Konchalovsky's House of Fools. On the side of Cuckoo, already bought by Sony Classics for distribution in the United States, is the internationality of the story told and much-needed pacifism. Such a tape, in principle, should appeal to representatives of the American Film Academy, who make up the top five nominees.

But in the last four years, Russia has been flying past this very short list, since the films put forward by our committee were not understandable to the Americans at all (like Alexander Sokurov’s Moloch and Taurus, for example) or simply did not meet the necessary conditions of the regulations. So it was in 1998 with "The Barber of Siberia" by Nikita Mikhalkov, which at the time of registration of the application did not have time to get into commercial distribution in Russia and, moreover, filmed in English.

But in Article 14, in paragraph II.1 of the Regulations on contenders for the Oscar, it is said that a foreign-language film must be shown in its country before October 31, and for seven consecutive days in cinemas and on a commercial basis (that is, with receipt income by producers and distributors), as well as with an advertising campaign. This must be supported by relevant documents (including copies from the media), which must be sent to the American Film Academy no later than November 1, and received by it before November 15.

In addition, according to paragraph II.2, the submitted tape must be filmed primarily in the language of that particular country, with the exception of special situations when another non-English language can be used as the dominant language only for plot reasons.

By the way, the last clarification is extremely important for "Cuckoo", where the characters are forced to speak three languages ​​- Russian, Finnish and Sami. Multinational speech is justified here and should not cause objections on the part of Americans. Here the Swedes have already alarmed in advance, trying to nominate the picture “Lily forever” by Lukas Moodysson for the Oscars, where the dialogues are mostly in Russian, since the young heroes are Russian. Probably, there is a fear that the academy will apply clause II.4 - about whether it has the final right to decide on the inclusion of a particular film in the list of applicants.

And the Russian-French "House of Fools" may have some problems if we take into account paragraph II.3, requiring the applicant country to confirm its artistic control over the tape. A few years ago, Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colors: Blue" was rejected on the sole ground that it was a creative product of three countries at once - France, Switzerland and Poland.

But, most importantly, "House of Fools" has not yet been released in Russian distribution. If this is urgently done, then it is still necessary to have time to obtain the necessary certificates in this regard. Konchalovsky, of course, is better known in the United States than Rogozhkin, but the topic of Chechnya, even presented as if from the point of view of crazy people, may not be accepted by the Americans.

They forced Pavel Chukhrai to cut off the "Chechen finale" in "The Thief" - by the way, which has become our last official Oscar nominee in the coveted five. And now Chukhrai has been expelled from the Russian Oscar committee. Rumor has it that he, like the other dispossessed, suffered from not being a member of the new National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The question is: who prevented them all from being elected academicians on such an occasion?