Under Milk Wood entered for Best Foreign Language Oscar
The film, starring Rhys Ifans and Charlotte Church, is one of 81 entrants from across the globe
The UK will be represented in the Foreign Language Oscar category this year by Under Milk Wood, a film starring Rhys Ifans and Charlotte Church.
Vietnam and Afghanistan are among the 81 countries to have submitted films for consideration in the 88th Academy Awards. Each country is allowed to enter one film each, and the deadline for submission was October 1.
Under Milk Wood, directed by Kevin Allen, is an adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ radio play of the same name. Two versions of the film were shot simultaneously – one in Welsh and one in English. It is set in the fictional town of Llareggub (buggerall backwards). This is the first film adaptation of Under Milk Wood since the 1972 version starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Rhys Ifans in Under Milk WoodCredit: Richard Stephen Brewis
France will be represented this year by a Turkish-language film. Mustang, the first feature by Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven, is the story of five sisters living in a village in northern Turkey. It is the first time France has been represented by a non-French language film in decades, the last time it did so, which the Portuguese-language Black Orpheus (1959), it won.
France last won a Foreign Language Oscar in 1993 with Indochine, which starred Catherine Deneuve, though it also took the main best picture prize for The Artist in 2011.
Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is Sweden's entry. Critic Robbie Collin described the film, a series of comic sketches, as "heaven" in his review for the Telegraph.
This is the first year Paraguay has entered a film for the foreign-language Oscar. The entry is a documentary called Cloudy Times, which portrays director Arami Ullon’s relationship with her aging mother.
China’s entry from director Han Yan, Go Away Mr Tumor, is about a young woman coping with cancer, while Vietnam’s Jackpot follows a lottery ticket vendor’s moral dilemma.
Son of Saul, the Hungarian entry, is a harrowing account of the travesties committed at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Taiwanese film The Assassin, a martial arts saga, is another film expected to make the shortlist of nominees.
The list will be trimmed to nine contenders one week before the announcement of the nominations for all categories at the Oscars on January 14. The winner will be announced on February 28 at the Academy Awards ceremony, the climax of the Hollywood awards season.
