Four new east films nominated for Oscars

Four films from the new east have been nominated for the 2016 Academy Awards, according to an announcement this afternoon.

Hungarian film Son of Saul has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category, while Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, directed by Russian filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky, has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature. Russian animation We Can’t Live Without Cosmos has been shortlisted in the Best Short Film - Animated category and UK/Kosovo co-production Shok has been nominated for Best Short Film - Live Action.

The debut feature by Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes, Son of Saul was seen as an early frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It won the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, which took place in May, and took home the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film last week.

Son of Saul centres on the story of a Jewish worker at Auschwitz who believes he has found the remains of his son and attempts to find a rabbi to give the child a proper burial.

Russian-Israeli director Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom centres on the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine and is a coproduction by Ukraine, the USA and the UK. It was produced in part by internet streaming giant Netflix.

We Can’t Live Without Cosmos, directed by Konstantin Bronzit, follows the story of two friends and their paths to achieving their childhood dream of going to space.

Shok, directed by British filmmaker Jamie Donoughue, centres on the friendship of two boys during the Kosovo war.

The 2016 Academy Awards are set to take place on 28 February in Hollywood.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter