Kyrgyzstan declines Oscar invitation

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Kyrgyzstan declines Oscar invitation after international entry rejection

Kyrgyzstan's Oscar selection committee has turned down the US Academy's request to submit another title for the international feature film category following the rejection of Aktan Arym Kubat's This Is What I Remember.
The film from the Central Asian country did not make the final list as its release date fell outside the Academy's release window.
According to Oscar regulations, international feature film submissions must have received a local release between December 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023 in order to qualify. However, This Is What I Remember opened on November 18, 2022. It continued to screen in cinemas until April this year.

It was not possible to enter the film into last year's Oscars as the submission deadline was October 3, before the film's world premiere in competition at the 2022 Tokyo International Film Festival on October 27, and proof of a local theatrical release was required to qualify for the Oscar category.
"We hadn't yet planned the release and didn't have any proof or even advertisement of upcoming release so we wouldn't have been able to apply," said producer Altynai Koichumanova.
"We decided to apply for the 2024 Oscars, but we didn't know about the regulations, and we didn't know that if we made the release before December 1, 2022, we would not qualify. Our mistake was that we had to guess what would be next year's [2024] regulations."
This Is What I Remember is a co-production between Kyrgyzstan, Japan, the Netherlands and France. Director Kubat plays an old man who has lost his memory and returns to Kyrgyzstan for the first time in more than 20 years. The film won the jury grand prize at last year's Asia Pacific Screen Awards and is the final film of a trilogy that began with The Light Thief and Centaur, both of which were submitted to the Oscars in 2010 and 2017 respectively.
"It's a real pity that a film by a filmmaker of such stature in world cinema like Aktan Arym Kubat is deemed ineligible under the way this current system is designed," said Mai Meksawan of Diversion, the Bangkok-based sales agent of the film.

"It shouldn't have been the producer's burden to have to plan this in advance even before the world premiere at Tokyo, and 18 months before the Oscars ceremony date.
"In other countries like Thailand, the international feature Oscars has become a marketing tool for studios to schedule the local release right within next year's deadline and use the 'Country's Pick for Oscars' to promote that release."
It would have marked the fifth film by Kubat - also known as Aktan Abdykalykov - to have been considered by Oscar voters after The Adopted Son, The Chimp, The Light Thief and Centaur. 
Neighbouring country Tajikistan also did not make this year's final list after making a rare entry with Behrouz Sebt Rasoul's Melody.
Countries submitting a feature for the first time, or who have not submitted for the previous five years, must present a list of selection committee members and application materials for the Academy. Screen understands that Tajikistan could not send that list on time, ruling it out of the running.

The film is received its international premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa today (November 24).