Armenia’s Oscar entry creators explain Academy’s disqualificationOctober 13, 2016 - 13:19 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Academy has disqualified Armenia's submission in the best foreign-language film race, “Earthquake”. The “Earthquake” creators issued an official statement explaining the disqualification. 85 films were longlisted for consideration to score a Foreign Language Oscar nom. According to the statement, on October 7, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences notified Armenia’s National Film Academy that “Earthquake” did not meet submission requirements. “The Academy cited a limited number of Armenians and the excess of Russians on the film’s team,” the statement said. As it was further noted, the film producers – Ruben Didishyan, Aram Movsesyan, Ghevond and Sarik Andreasyan, as well as actors – Victor Stepanyan, Hrant Tokhatyan, Mikael Poghosyan and composer Hayk Hakobyan expressed disagreement over the claim. “Armenia’s National Film Center and Ministry of Culture shared the sentiment. With the support of the latter, additional documents were sent to the Academy, confirming that the film was an Armenian-Russian effort, with the balance of creative control preserved in the production,” the statement said. It was also noted that the documents were sent on October 10 morning, which was a day off in the U.S.; the papers were not given adequate attention which is why the longlist was released to the press on October 11, without giving proper consideration to Armenia’s entry. “At present, the Academy confirms receiving the Armenia-sent documents, and we’re hoping to be included in the longlist. We wouldn’t like to think that the decision was politically motivated. The movie credits clearly show that it’s 90% Armenian-made, involving Armenians from Armenia, France, and Russia,” Ruben Didishyan said. “Earthquake,” a $3 million disaster movie directed by Sarik Andreasyan, is a dramatized recreation of one of the Soviet Union's most devastating natural disasters — the Spitak earthquake in northern Armenia in December 1988. The pic was Armenia's fifth submission in the best foreign-language film Oscar category since the country gained independence in 1991. Related issues: Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Pasadena to host Armenian Genocide commemoration event The Pasadena Armenian Coalition will host its community-wide Armenian Genocide Commemorative Event. Armenia: Opposition activist transferred to Investigative Committee Activist Samvel Vardanyan has been accused of insulting the lawmaker Hakob Aslanyan from the ruling Civil Contract party. Russia confirms start of withdrawal of peacekeepers from Karabakh The Kremlin has confirmed reports about the start of the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces in Karabakh. France recalls its ambassador to Azerbaijan France on April 16 said it had recalled for consultations the French ambassador to Azerbaijan. |