Renowned filmmaker Majid Majidi‘s film Sun Children will be Iran’s official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards, the country announced on Sunday.
The film was selected by a delegation of representatives of Iranian cinema to the Oscar ceremony. This is Majidi’s sixth film to be chosen as Iran’s official entry to the Oscars.
“The secretary and spokesman for the representative of Iranian cinema to the 2021 Academy Awards said on Sunday that due to the change in the rules of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the change in the deadline for participating in this period due to Covid-19 virus outbreak, the work of this committee began with reviewing 90 screened Iranian films and then the selection committee came up with a list of 12 films,” reported The Islamic Republic News Agency.
In April, the Academy Awards announced that films which were intended to have a theatrical release but were made available on commercial streaming platforms were also eligible for entry.
Sun Children premiered during the 77th Venice Film Festival in September. It earned Ruhollah Zamani, who played the protagonist, the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor award.
“The story revolves around a prison-break drama and a knockabout school comedy gone horribly wrong,” the report said.
Majidi’s last film was Beyond the Clouds (2017) starring Ishaan Khatter, Malavika Mohanan, and Gautam Ghose in prominent roles.
While India is yet to announce its Oscar entry, three Indian filmmakers have been invited to the Oscars 2021 jury- Nishtha Jain, Shirley Abraham, and Amit Madhesiya.
Recommended
Recently, Japan announced Naomi Kawase’s True Mothers as its official entry to the Oscars. Other entries include And Tomorrow the Entire World (Germany), Charlatan (Czech Republic), and The Man Standing Next (South Korea).
David Fincher’s biographical drama Mank, which will have a limited theatrical release on November 13 and a release on Netflix on December 4, will be the first film distributed by Netflix to contest for the Oscars.