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Russia chooses Beanpole to be submitted to compete for Oscar

It will qualify for the Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film nomination

A still from the film Beanpole Pioner film company

A still from the film Beanpole

© Pioner film company

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Beanpole, a Russian historical drama directed by Kantemir Balagov, has been chosen to be submitted for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category (Best International Feature Film from 2020), film director Vladimir Menshov, who chairs the Russian Oscar committee, told TASS on Tuesday.

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"We have chosen Beanpole," he said, adding he would refrain from commenting on the choice.

Official Oscar nominees are chosen from among films submitted by countries. Russian films won three Academy Awards in this category, namely War and Peace by Sergei Bondarchuk in 1968, Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears by Vladimir Menshov in 1981, and Burnt by the Sun by Nikita Mikhalkov in 1994.

Beanpole, produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, is set in Leningrad in 1945 and tells the story of a young woman and her friend returning from World War II and trying to begin a new life in the post-blockade city.

It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won two awards: the Un Certain Regard Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film.

The Academy will name the nominees for the award in January 2020. The 92nd Academy Awards will take place on February 9, 2020 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

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