Czech film director Václav Marhoul’s epic The Painted Bird has made the
Oscars shortlist for Best International Feature Film. Ninety-one films were
eligible in the category, and 10 will advance to the next round of voting.
Marhoul’s three-hour-long, black-and-white film is based on the 1965
novel by Polish-born author Jerzy Kosiński about a dark-skinned boy
subject to all manner of abuse during WWII.
The Painted Bird was the first Czech film in competition at the Venice
International Film Festival in a quarter century. It has also been
nominated by the International Press Academy for a Satellite Award.
The other shortlisted films in the international feature category are Truth
and Justice (Estonia), Les Misérables (France), Those Who Remained
(Hungary), Honeyland (North Macedonia), Corpus Christi (Poland), Beanpole
(Russia), Atlantics (Senegal), Parasite (South Korea), and Pain and Glory
(Spain).
In the animated short film category, a film by Daria Kashcheeva, a student
of Prague's FAMU born in Tajikistan, was also shortlisted. The Oscar
nominations themselves, five in each category, will be announced on 13
January.