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Leviathan to compete for Oscar 2015 Best Foreign Language Film from Russia

“We took this decision in favour of the Leviathan movie with a majority of votes,” Chukhrai said

MOSCOW, September 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Leviathan drama directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev was nominated in Russia for the Academy Award for Best Foreign language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, Pavel Chukhrai, a celebrated director and a member of Russia’s Oscar Committee, said upon Sunday’s meeting of the committee.

“We took this decision in favour of the Leviathan movie with a majority of votes,” Chukhrai said.

Leviathan’s first screening took place at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it won the Best Screenplay award.

In North America the movie was shown on September 10 within the Toronto Film Festival and later Sony Pictures Classics will distribute it there in December. In Russia the film will appear in cinemas on November 13.

Leviathan is an interpretation of the Book of Job that takes place in contemporary Russia, starring Alexei Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov and others.

Earlier, Russian film director Andrey Konchalovsky, whose new drama The Postman’s White Nights received the best director's Silver Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival this year, refused to fight for the Oscar award.

The 87th American Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, honouring best cinematic achievements in the film industry, will be held on February 22, 2015 in the US city of Los Angeles. The nominees for the award will be announced on January 15, 2015.

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