india's first official entry at the oscars was 1957.
india's first official entry at the oscars was 1957.
what film was india's first official entry at the oscars?
1957
the film federation of india (ffi) appoints a committee to choose one film among those released that year to be submitted as india's official entry to the academy for a nomination for "best foreign language film" the following year. the chosen films, along with their english subtitles, are sent to the academy, where they are screened for the jury. the 1957 hindi film "mother india" was india's first submission. the film made it to the final shortlist and was nominated alongside four other films in the category. it came close to winning the academy award but lost to "nights of cabiria" by a single vote. since 1984, india has not submitted a film on only one occasion; in 2003, the ffi controversially chose not make an entry as they felt no film would be in a position to compete with films from other nations. , only three indian films—"mother india" (1957), "salaam bombay!" (1988) and "lagaan" (2001)—have been nominated for the academy award for "best foreign language film". in 2011, the jury of the 58th national film awards made a recommendation that films winning best film at the annual national film awards should be the official entry. however, over the next three years, none of the "best film" winners was chosen as the official entry. for the 88th academy awards, "court", the "best film" winner at the 62nd national film awards, was submitted by india.
list of indian submissions for the academy award for best foreign language film
"adaminte makan abu" was india's official entry to be considered for nomination in the best foreign film category for the 84th academy awards. it was chosen over 15 others by the film federation of india (ffi) to represent the country for the award. "adaminte makan abu" is the second malayalam film (the first one being "guru") to be submitted for the oscars. salim ahamed was burdened heavily with promoting it in the united states for the oscar jury. according to ahamed, promotional events such as showing the film in the us (including at least six showings for the jury members) would be necessary to get support for the nomination. ahamed also stated that the nomination would not directly result in monetary rewards, so nobody would loan him money for the purpose. lobbying began in october 2011. in an interview, ahamed said that people abroad, particularly in the gulf region, were of assistance. there was not any support from the government or malayalam film industry (or even contacts from them). meanwhile, many political parties from kerala urged the government to help raise funds for the film. in reply, the kerala chief minister, oommen chandy, said that malayalam film industry had to make a unanimous demand for the state government to extend help to the makers of "adaminte makan abu", india's official entry to the oscars. salim ahamed managed to jumpstart his academy awards campaign with a screening to a packed audience in the charlie chaplin screening room of raleigh studios in los angeles in early december 2011. however, in january 2012 the film did not make the final shortlist.
adaminte makan abu