Armenian submission for foreign-language Oscar disqualified

Armenia’s submission for the foreign-language film category at the 89th Academy Awards — Earthquake by Sarik Andreasyan — has been disqualified.

“The committee deemed that Earthquake did not meet submission requirements,” a spokesperson for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Produced by Moscow-based production company Mars Media, Earthquake allegedly had too few Armenians in the crew to qualify as the country’s submission. Mars Media has sent documents to the Academy, in an attempt to prove that the the film was a coproduction between Armenia and Russia.

“We still hope that the film will be put on the list,” said Ruben Dishdishyan, who heads up the production company, asserting that the film was “90 per cent made by Armenians from Armenia, Russia and France”.

If the dramatisation of the 1988 Spitak earthquake in northern Armenia fails to gain approval, the Academy will allow Armenia to submit another film.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter