Russia, Moscow has decided not to submit a film to compete for an Oscar this year due to deteriorating relations with the West over Ukraine.
According to a statement posted late Monday by the Russian academy, the Film Academy of Russia’s praesidium has decided not to submit a national film for the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscars in 2022.
The chairman of the committee in charge of picking a nominee quit on Tuesday, citing a choice made “behind his back.”
In a letter announcing his resignation, Pavel Chukhray alleged that the Academy’s leadership had unilaterally decided not to nominate a Russian film for an Oscar nomination.
A pro-Kremlin director, Nikita Mikhalkov, told the Russian state-run TASS news agency that Russia had nothing to gain from participating this year.
“It just seems to me that choosing a film that would represent Russia in a country that in truth today rejects the existence of Russia does not make any sense,” he was quoted as saying.
Instead, the 76-year-old has proposed creating a similar prize for countries in Eurasia, such as the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Mikhalkov’s 1995 feature film Burnt by the Sun, which depicted the hardships of life under Soviet despot Josef Stalin, received the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
