List of Albanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

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Albania has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on an irregular basis since 1996. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue.[1] It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was created for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since.[2]

The Albanian submission is decided by a committee appointed by the Albanian Ministry of Culture.[3] Nine Albanian films have been submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but none of them has yet been nominated for an Oscar.

Submissions

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956.[2] The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. Following this, they vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award.[1] The list of the films that have been submitted by Albania for review by the Academy for the award by year and the respective Academy Awards ceremony as follows.

Year
(Ceremony)		 Film title used in nomination Albanian title Director Result
1996
(69th) 		Kolonel Bunker Kolonel Bunker Kujtim Çashku Not Nominated
2001
(74th) 		Slogans Parullat Gjergj Xhuvani Not Nominated
2008
(81st) 		The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider Trishtimi i zonjës Shnajder Eno Milkani & Piro Milkani Not Nominated
2009
(82nd) 		Alive Gjallë! Artan Minarolli Not Nominated
2010
(83rd) 		East, West, East[4] Lindje, Perëndim, Lindje Gjergj Xhuvani Not Nominated[5]
2011
(84th) 		Amnesty Amnistia Bujar Alimani Not Nominated
2012
(85th) 		Pharmakon[6] Pharmakon Joni Shanaj Not Nominated
2013
(86th) 		Agon[7] Agon Robert Budina Not Nominated
2015
(88th) 		Bota[8] Bota Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci
TBD

Albania's first three films were historical tales set against the backdrop of the Enver Hoxha dictatorship which ruled Albania for over forty years. Bunker and Slogans take place in Albania in the late 1970s while Sadness takes place in 1961 Czechoslovakia. Colonel Bunker is a drama about a soldier tasked by Hoxha to build a network of impossibly elaborate structures ('bunkers') designed to resist a potential foreign invasion. Slogans is a lighter film satirizing the ideological obsessions of the Hoxha regime, and their suffocating influence over the life of a small, rural school. Both films are among the few Albanian films to win awards at international Film Festivals- Bunker won an award at Venice and Slogans was the very first Albanian film to play at Cannes. The Sadness of Mrs. Schneider, a Czech co-production, tells the story of a multi-ethnic group of friends studying cinema in Prague in the 1960s, and their travels around the Czechoslovak countryside.

In 2009, the selection committee originally considered three films.[3][9] Two of these films were directed by Artan Minarolli. Albania ended up choosing a film set in the post-Communist era for the first time- Minarolli's Alive!- about a modern, young Albanian student who becomes involved with an ancient blood feud after returning to his home village for the funeral of his father.

Although, Albania itself has maintained a low profile in this category, four other countries in the region- Greece, Italy, Macedonia and Switzerland- have each submitted films about Albania and the Albanian diaspora to the Oscars.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Rule Thirteen: Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b "History of the Academy Awards - Page 2". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  3. ^ a b http://www.shqiperia.com/kat/m/shfaqart/aid/6157/Gjalle-ne-Oscar-S'kishte-tjeter!.html
  4. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (27 September 2010). "Albania looks 'East' for its Oscar choice". Variety. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  5. ^ "9 Foreign Language Films Continue to Oscar® Race". oscars.org. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  6. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (25 September 2012). "Albania to enter 'Pharmakon' for Oscars". Variety. News Limited. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Albania's Agon selected for the foreign-language film category at the 2014 Oscars". Illyria. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
  8. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (21 September 2015). "Oscars: Albania Nominates 'Bota' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  9. ^ Runner-ups: A Provincial Chronicle and Lenin and Us. http://www.albaniasite.net/kultura/gjalle-ne-oscar-skishte-tjeter.html [dead link]

External links

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