MUMBAI: While Indians and especially actor – producer turned director Aamir Khan revel in the selection of Taare Zameen Par (TZP) as the official Indian entry to the Oscars this year; countries across the globe are also sending in their entries to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
And that’s the category to watch out for as TZP will be vying for the coveted Oscar statuette in the same. It’s only just the beginning for an exhaustive promotional and awareness campaign, lobbying and what not!
Countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Palestine and Russia have made known their movie entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for this year. The deadline to submit entries in the Best Foreign Language Film is 1 October.
Following are the films submitted so far from countries to compete in the category:
| Country | Movie | Director |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | Snow | Aida Begic |
| Canada | The Necessities of Life | Benoit Pilon |
| China | Dream Weavers – Beijing 2008 | Gun Yu |
| Colombia | Perro Come Perro | Carlos Moreno |
| Czech Republic | Karamazovs | Petr Zelenka |
| Hong Kong | Wa Pei (Painted Skin) | Gordon Chan |
| Iceland | White Night Wedding | Helmer Baltasar Kormakur |
| India | Taare Zameen Par | Aamir Khan |
| Israel | Waltz With Bashir | Ari Folman |
| Italy | Gomorrah | Matteo Garrone |
| Palestine | Salt of This Sea | Annemarie Jacir |
| Russia | The Mermaid | Anna Melikyan |
While some of the movies mentioned above have been screened at film festivals like Cannes, Montreal World Film Festival, New York Film Festival, etc and have also won awards; Taare Zameen Par too has had its round of screenings at the Sydney Film Festival and Stuttgart’s Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival.
For the Oscars, Aamir Khan will be looking at organising special screenings of Taare Zameen Par in the US so that the movie reaches out to audiences. The actor will also be flexing his marketing muscle to do all there is to generate buzz and that too without being present there since he would be disqualified if he was.
The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences invited 96 countries to submit films for foreign-language Oscar consideration.
Whether TZP will be amongst the Top 5 movies in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Oscars is something that one has to wait and watch out for. That query will be answered on 22 January when the nominations will be announced. If and only if TZP makes it to the Top 5, ’twill be another month before the awards take place – 22 February… so Mr Khan make sure your nails are intact till then!
