Turkey’s ’Three Monkeys’ on Oscar shortlist

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

refid:10777952 ilişkili resim dosyası

The film earned the Best Director Award at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May last year.

Producer Zeynep Özbatur expressed their happiness over this Oscar success. "It is very important to reach this stage among 65 films. Best Foreign Film Oscars are a big public relations war but we believe in our film," she said.

Israel's animated war film, "Waltz with Bashir," the best foreign-language film at Sunday's Golden Globes, is also competing for Best Foreign Film Oscar. The film about the 1982 Israeli-Lebanon war is by director Ari Folman, and this month the U.S.-based National Society of Film Critics chose it as the best film of 2008. It has been described as an animated documentary, combining audio interviews and animation.

"The Class," a French movie set in a tough Parisian high school, made the short list of films vying for nomination in the foreign-language Oscar race. "The Class" topped the competition at Cannes to win the Palme d'Or prize for best picture.

The other foreign-language films short-listed for an Oscar nomination are: "Revanche" (Austria), "The Necessities of Life" (Canada), "The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany), "Departures" (Japan), "Tear This Heart Out" (Mexico), and "Everlasting Moments" (Sweden). Each country can submit only one film.

The nine films, culled from among 65 entries, were chosen by hundreds of members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and by an executive committee of the organization. The list will be narrowed to five nominees by specially selected committees in New York and Los Angeles, the academy said.

The final five nominees in the foreign film category will be announced Jan. 22, the academy said.