The 93rd Academy Awards Ceremony is scheduled be held on Apr. 25,2021 in Los Angeles

Kolkata:  Malayalam filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery’s ‘Jallikattu’ has been chosen as India’s Official Entry film for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards. The award ceremony is scheduled on April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles. 

A distinguished team of 14 jury members of Film Federation of India announced the official entry through a virtual press briefing session yesterday. Ace director Rahul Rawail headed the jury board this year as Chairman, Jury. Along with Rawail, music director Prabuddha Banerjee, filmmaker Atanu Ghosh, filmmaker Satarupa Sanyal and other dignitaries acted as jury.

‘Jallikattu’ has been premièred on 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and also was showcased at the 24th Busan International Film Festival. Lijo Jose Pellissery awarded as the Best Director at the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

This year there were 27 entries while 22 of them were Hindi. 2 Malayalam films, 2 Marathi films and 1 Odia film also fought for the category entry. Finally, Malayalam film ‘Jallikattu’ has been selected as official entry by beating films ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ by Shoojit Sircar, ‘Chaalaang’ by Hansal Mehta, ‘Shikara’ by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, ‘Bulbbul’ by Anvita Dutt and others.

In 2019, the jury board headed by ace filmmaker Aparna Sen picked ‘Gully Boy’ by Zoya Akhtar as India’s Official Entry for the 2020 Oscars. Eventually, India still has to win its first honour in the category.

Jallikattu: The 2019 action drama has been directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery with a screenplay by S. Hareesh and R. Jayakumar. It is based on the short story named Maoist by Hareesh. The film stars Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran.

The story revolves around a buffalo that flees from a slaughterhouse in a remote hill town of Kerala, and how the entire townsfolk end up in its hunt. As the hapless animal runs riot in the town, the plot brings alive the vicious side of humanity.