The nominations for the 94th Academy Awards which take place on 27 March have landed. While the triumph of “The Power of the Dog” is confirmed with 12 nods, as this year’s race gears up it’s gratifying to see Asian talent emerge on the global scale. Gafencu shines a spotlight on the Asian films and projects which are touted to be sensational at the Oscars…

Drive My Car, Japan

The meditative drama, based on celebrated writer Haruki Murakami’s short story,  scored multiple nominations – best film, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international feature film. 43-year-old director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s moving drama, Drive My Car’s solid nominations haul was beautifully reminiscent of the historic 2020 Oscars run of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, the film landed six nominations, ultimately winning four awards.

Starring Japanese leading actor Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director coping with the fateful death of this wife, he travels to Hiroshima to direct a performance of Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. The movie is a powerful tale of conversations and revelations between the young, female chauffeur and Nishijima. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last summer and has been winning accolades ever since

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Bhutan

 A film from Bhutan has made it to Oscar nominations for the first time in 23 years. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom was sent as Bhutan’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards as well, but was later disqualified. This is the second time. The 109-minute-long film which tells the life of a disillusioned school teacher, Ugyen, touches upon the basic human quality of seeking where you belong, seeking happiness, and seeking home. The storyline follows Ugyen in the remote town of Lunana in northern Bhutan during the final year of his training where he adapts to the rough life in a cold, high altitude place with little or no amenities. Ugyen keeps the company of a yak and a song that echoes through the mountains.
 
The drama has won several international accolades at festivals – Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film and the Best of the Fest at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival, Lessinia d’Oro Award for Best Film at the 26th Festival della Lessinia in Italy, the Guiria Microcosmo del carcere di Verona Award and a special mention in the Log to Green Award, Prix du Public in the Festival international du film de Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Sherab Dorji was awarded the Best Actor award for his role of Ugyen Dorji.

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Writing With Fire, India

The only Indian film to earn a nomination at the 94th Academy Awards, Writing With Fire, the love child of filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, has been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category alongside Ascension, Attica, Flee and Summer of the Soul (Or When the Revolution Could not be Televised).

The film shines the light on a rural newspaper Khabar Lahariya, run by marginalised Dalit women, and follows it transition from print to digital in recent years. The film tracks Meera and her fellow journalists as they get abreast with new technology whilst questioning the role of patriarchy, the overarching incompetence of the police force, and reporting stories about victims of caste and gender violence. It has already made waves at several international festivals including the Sundance Film Festival.

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