Ukraine has failed to submit a film to compete in the foreign-language category at next year’s Oscars.
Ukraine’s Oscar committee missed the deadline for Oscar submissions but is hoping the Academy will give it an extension, as happened in a similar situation a few years ago.
Ukraine recently changed its procedure for selecting its foreign-language candidate but, the committee says, it has not yet heard back from the Academy if these changes have been accepted.
“All necessary documents for approval of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee were sent to the American Film Academy in late June 2015,” reads a statement sent to The Hollywood Reporter from Ukraine’s national union of filmmakers, the organization that selects the country’s Oscar submission.
The group said it received a reply in early July that the Academy’s executive committee would consider the changes but, according to the Ukrainians, the committee hasn’t convened to consider that issue. “We sincerely hope that the American Film Academy will approve the new lineup of the Ukrainian Oscar committee and allow Ukraine to submit a film for the Oscars this year,” the group said.
It’s a replay, of sorts, of what happened to Ukraine back in 2006 when the country missed the Oscar deadline but received an extension and was allowed to submit Oksana Bairak‘s Aurora for consideration.
Ukraine changed its Oscar selection procedure following controversy last year when Ukraine submitted Oles Sanin‘s The Guide for the Oscar race ahead of the more acclaimed festival hit The Tribe by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky. That decision sparked a controversy that resulted in accusations of collusion by several members of the country’s selection committee, who were forced to step down.
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