‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ fails to make shortlist for Oscars

Azmeri Haque Badhon starrer highly-anticipated film ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’, Bangladesh’s official entry to Oscars, has failed to make it to the shortlist of 15 finalists in the International Feature Film Category as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled its shortlists for the 2022 Oscars in 10 categories, including documentary and international features.

Fifteen international features advanced, out of the films from 92 countries that were eligible. Frontrunners that made the cut include Iran’s ‘A Hero’, Italy’s ‘Hand of God’, Japan’s ‘Drive My Car and Flee’, which represents Denmark. But France’s Titane, which won the Paleme D’Or at Cannes, failed to make the shortlist.

A whopping 108 documentary features were eligible this year, and 15 advanced through the shortlist phase, including expected contenders such as ‘Summer of Soul’, ‘The Rescue’, ‘The Velvet Underground and Flee’.

Animated documentary Flee could become the first movie to be nominated for best feature documentary, best international feature and best animated feature — and could even make history as the first doc nominated for best picture. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee tells an intimate story of the life of ‘Amin’ (a pseudonym), who shares his extraordinary escape from Afghanistan as a child refugee.

The original song shortlist is loaded with stars from the music world, including Billie Eilish (‘No Time To Die’), Beyonce (‘Be Alive’), Jay-Z (‘Guns Go Bang’), Ariana Grande (‘Just Look Up’) and U2 (‘Your Song Saved My Life’). Twelve-time nominee Diane Warren made the shortlist for ‘Somehow You Do’ from Four Good Days, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is in the mix for ‘Dos Oruguitas’ from Encanto. A total of 84 songs were eligible.

The visual effects category is back with blockbuster contenders that were largely absent in last year’s race. Due to the pandemic, which caused many tentpoles to move from 2020 to 2021, last year was the first since 2009 that the VFX shortlist didn’t contain at least one Marvel movie.

This year’s list includes Marvel titles ‘Black Widow’, ‘Shang Chi’ and ‘Eternals’ as well as Sony/Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’. Incidentally, 2004’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ was the last superhero movie to win an Oscar in visual effects.

This year the Sound Branch reinstated its bake-off and shortlist, which includes ‘Dune’, ‘A Quiet Place Part II’, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ and ‘West Side Story’.

The branch will be invited to view eight-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films beginning Jan. 28 before voting on the category nominees.

Nominations voting runs from January 27 to February 1, and nominations will be announced on February 8. The 94th Oscars are slated to be held March 27 at the Dolby Theatre.