Director Keith Gomes‘ short film Shameless has been announced as India’s official entry to the Best Live Action Short Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards.
The Oscar is scheduled to be held in April 2021. Director Marshall Curry’s The Neighbor’s Window won the award this year.
The 15-minute film is a dark-comedy that features actors Sayani Gupta, Hussain Dalal and Rishabh Kapoor. It deals with the loss of human spirit due to technology and also attempts to raise relevant questions on the issues of entitlement, humanity and empathy toward the migrant class, ANI reported.
The story revolves around a professional, played by Dalal, who works from home and keeps on ordering pizza. He wakes up one morning to find himself trapped by an exasperated and apologetic pizza-delivery girl, played by Gupta.
As per a report by ANI, Gomes said in a statement, “I observe human behavior and love telling stories about the human spirit. This world needs kindness and my films are a reminder to not get lost into technology. I have to thank my incredible cast and my crew of National and Oscar Award winners. I make films with little funding from my family and friends, everyone comes together with loads of love and passion. Couldn’t be more blessed.”
Produced by Ashley Gomes and Sandeep Kamal, the film was one of the finalists at the third edition of the Best of India Short Film Festival 2020. Resul Pookutty, who won an Oscar for Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009, has designed the sound for the short film.
Oyeee @sayanigupta …. Kya baath hai…#Shameless you are! No party…. somebody said we will have get together, food, cooking etc etc… https://t.co/8YaQXhMFXp
— resul pookutty (@resulp) November 29, 2020
Gomes’ other works include the short films Doobie (2020) and Child’s Play (2016). Doobie was released by veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and won several international awards, including the Best Children’s Short Film Award at Dytiatko International Children’s Film Festival, Ukraine. It was screened at several platforms including the POFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and the Jaipur International Film Festival.
Earlier, Gomes had written the screenplay for the 2014 Salman Khan-starrer film Kick.
Recommended
The second season of Gupta’s Amazon Prime web series Four More Shots Please! was nominated for the Emmy’s this year in the Best Comedy Series category. She has earlier worked with Dalal in the 2014 film Margarita With A Straw.
Shameless released in April 2019 and was contending for the Oscars against four other short films- Shaan Vyas’ Natkhat, Aditya Kelgaonkar’s Sound Proof, Safar, and Trapped.
Malayalam independent film Jallikattu has been announced as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy.