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Tag: Ampas

  • Oscars vote: 20 Indians & NRIs including Big B invited

    Oscars vote: 20 Indians & NRIs including Big B invited

    NEW DELHI: Actor-producer Aamir Khan is the only producer of an Oscar nominee among around 20 Indians or people of Indian origin including megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra who have been invited to join the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to vote for the Oscars.

    Interestingly, Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are the only father and daughter-in-law in the list of 774 persons invited from 57 countries.

    The total includes some persons – like eminent directors Mrinal Sen and Goutam Ghose – who have figured in more than one category in the total, as director and writer. Priyanka Chopra, Irfan Khan and Deepika Padukone who have also featured in international cinema are also in the list, which includes actor Salman Khan.

    Designers include Arjun Bhasin who designed the costumes of  “Monsoon Wedding” (which was also nominated); the renowned Mrinal Sen; Indian origin designer Geeta Gandbhir whose films include “The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington” and “Music by Prudence”, and award-winning director Anand Patwardhan.

    The list includes visual effects and animation filmmaker Mohit Kallianpur –“Frozen,” “Tangled” and Indian origin filmmaker Mahesh Ramasubramanian – “Home,” “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” in the short feature category.

    The award-winning directors Buddhadeb Das Gupta and Sooni Taraporevala figure in the list of writers of films they directed.

    Others include executive Abhijay Prakash and film curator Rajendra Roy apart from Ujwal Narayan Nirgudkar.

    “We’re proud to invite our newest class to the Academy. The entire motion picture community is what we make of it,” Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy President, said in a statement.

    Some eminent international personalities include Fatih Akin, Kim-ki-Duk, Garth Davis, Lav Diaz, Tom Ford, Anna Hui, Takashi Miike, and Guy Ritchie among others.

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  • Bhanu Athaiya returns her Gandhi Oscar statuette to the Academy

    Bhanu Athaiya returns her Gandhi Oscar statuette to the Academy

    MUMBAI: Alarmed by the theft of Rabindranath Tagore‘s Nobel medal recently, Mumbai-based Bhanu Athaiya, who won best costume design for Richard Attenborough‘s multiple award-winning Gandhi at the 55th Annual Academy Awards in 1983, has returned the same to the Academy.
    Said Athaiya in a statement, "I do not trust anyone in India to keep the statuette. If Rabindranath Tagore‘s Nobel medal could be stolen from Shantiniketan, what is the guarantee my trophy would be safe? In India, no one values such things, and we lack a tradition of maintaining our heritage and things pertaining to our culture. In the past, many Oscar winners have returned their trophies for safekeeping with the Academy such as eight-time Oscar-winning costume designer Edith Head, among others."
    In addition to her Oscar, Athaiya has also donated some papers and photographs related to her work for Gandhi. These include newspaper articles and a 1983 telegram from Attenborough sent to Athaiya congratulating her on her nomination.
    The costume designer was slated to travel to L.A. in 2013 and personally hand over the trophy to the Academy. But in June this year, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor leading her to hand over her Oscar earlier.
    The Academy made arrangements for the Oscar to be collected last week from Athaiya‘s Mumbai workshop. Said AMPAS assistant general counsel and MD of administration Scott Miller, "The Academy is honoured to receive back your statuette. As you mentioned, we were donated Edith Head‘s Oscars [along with Head‘s career papers and drawings, which are part of the collections at the Academy‘s Margaret Herrick Library].
    Many other artistes have also donated their statuettes and personal papers to the Academy for their perpetual safekeeping and public education. And those statuettes are always treated and displayed with dignity at the Academy‘s exhibitions and galleries. Also, we are in the process of creating the finest motion picture museum in the world and I‘m certain Athaiya‘s statuette will find a place in it."
    As one of India‘s most acclaimed costume designers, Athaiya has worked on more than 100 films including classics like Guide, Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, Pyaasa and India‘s 2001 foreign film Oscar nominee Lagaan.

  • 83 countries invited to submit foreign language films for Oscars

    83 countries invited to submit foreign language films for Oscars

    MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) in the US has invited 83 countries to submit films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 79th Academy Awards.

    The Oscars will take place on 25 February, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. In the US it will air on ABC while in India it will air on Star Movies. To qualify for the 2006 awards year, a film must be released in the submitting country between 1 October, 2005 and 30 September, 2006 and be publicly screened in 35mm or 70mm film for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theater.

    The dialogue track must be predominantly in a language or languages other than English. Accurate English subtitles are required. Entry forms must be received at the Academy by 2 October, 2006, and film prints must be received by 13 October. Only one picture will be accepted from each country. Five films will be chosen.

    Since the category’s establishment in 1956, 102 different countries have submitted films to compete for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The 1956 award went to Italy for La Strada.Most recently, the South African film Tsotsi won the Oscar over a field of nominated films from France, Germany, Italy and the Palestinian Territories.

    Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan will receive this year their first invitation to participate. The last time India featured was in 2001 when Lagaan was nominated. There have been cases when a film has not been nominated because it was not in the language of the submitting country.

    An example was last year when Austria submitted Cache that some critics felt was the best foreign film of 2005. Unfortunately as the film was in French it was deemed ineligible. The director Michael Haneke is Austrian. Then there was the case of The Motorcycle Diaries in 2004. As it was a co-production between three countries no one country was willing to submit it.