Rima Das’ Village Rockstars, India’s official entry to the 2019 Oscars in Best Foreign Films category, has not made it to the final shortlist.
It was a self-funded film written, directed and edited by Rima Das. Her mother co-produced the film, and her cousin helped with production. It is set in Chhaygaon, the village in Assam where she was born and raised.
The film follows the story of Dhunu, a girl who grows up in poverty and fends for herself. She dreams of forming her own rock band and owning a guitar someday.
“Back then, little did my band of rockstars and I know how far from the village our film would take us. From Toronto to Paris, Cairo to LA and even all the way back home, the love which greeted us in every town, at every screening, was beyond any of our wildest dreams,” Rima Das said on social media yesterday.
We will keep our faith alive to keep dreaming ?#VillageRockstars pic.twitter.com/wOyDgPNVZe
— rima das (@rimadasFilm) December 18, 2018
Village Rockstars won Best Feature Film, Best Child Artist, Best Location Sound Recordist and Best Editing at this year’s National Film Awards. It was selected as India’s official entry for the 91st Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Anant Mahadevan, one of the jurors who selected the film for Oscars, said in a ToI report, “I stand by the decision we made together. Rima’s film offered an improvised look at relationships and it belonged to a part of India that has seldom been exposed before.”
“I am not too taken aback by the Academy’s decision but I still believe no other film could’ve represented us better. Our best effort fell short and there is a bitter lesson to be learnt here,” he said.
A total of 87 films were considered in the category. Nine have now been shortlisted to go to the next round: Birds of Passage (Colombia), The Guilty (Denmark), Never Look Away (Germany), Shoplifters (Japan), Ayka (Kazakhstan), Capernaum (Lebanon), Roma (Mexico), Cold War (Poland) and Burning (South Korea).
Filmmakers and critics tweeted that the competition was tough for Rima, but their admiration for Village Rockstars will remain the same.
Dear @rimadasFilm , #VillageRockstars is a precious little film. The competition was tough even as you did your best to promote the film. It did not make the Oscar shortlist, but to all your fans, admirers you are already a winner. So congratulations for making #VillageRockstars.
— Aseem Chhabra (@chhabs) December 18, 2018
Rima would have still found it tough… Girl, Border… far superior films that too haven’t made the cut
— Namrata Joshi (@Namrata_Joshi) December 18, 2018
Glad it is being talked about – no women in the delegation that met PM @narendramodi. How can you even call it a "representation" when it is half-baked male-dominated? Remember India's entry to the Oscars this year was Village Rockstars, made by a woman director, @rimadasFilm!!??
— Mimansa Shekhar (@mimansashekhar) December 19, 2018
@rimadasFilm it's heartbreaking not to see #VillageRockstars in the next round of nomination of #Oscars2019 … All the very best for your future endeavors… Wish our Industry could have supported bit more…
— Ivan Arnab Gomes (@arnabgomes) December 19, 2018
Starring Bhanita Das in the lead, Village Rockstars premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year. It has been screened at other national and international festivals since then.
Cameron Bailey, the director of TIFF congratulated Rima Das for taking the film from National Film Awards to the Oscars single-handedly.
VILLAGE ROCKSTARS has already had an incredible run from #TIFF17 to winning India’s National Film Awards to representing the world’s biggest film nation in the Oscar race. Congratulations to @RimaDasFilm, who did it single-handedly. https://t.co/59Y2CK62w8
— Cameron Bailey (@cameron_tiff) December 18, 2018
Very few Indian films have made it to the shortlist in Best Foreign Film category. The last one was Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan in 2001. Mother India (1958) and Salaam Bombay (1989) have also made it to the top five.
