Newton, the political satire directed by Amit Masurkar has been selected as India’s official entry to Oscars in the best foreign language film category for the 2018 edition. The decision was announced by the selection committee of the film federation of India on Friday. The committee is headed by CV Reddy, a renowned Telugu film producer.
Speaking on the development, Reddy said that the movie was unanimously chosen by the committee out of the 26 entries which were nominated. Everyone liked the movie and it was an instant decision. Newton is about a presiding officer in a Naxal hit area who vows to conduct a fair election in his constituency. Produced by Drishyam Films and distributed by Eros Entertainment, Newton also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil and Raghubir Yadav. The movie was released on the day of this announcement being made.
“I hope this brings more attention to what is happening in Chhattisgarh right now,” Masurkar told media. “We are a democracy. It works in certain parts and it doesn’t work in certain others. And that is very unfair. I want people all over India to understand that there are imperfections and we have to be constantly vigilant and working to correct it.”
Masurkar also expressed his gratitude for the selection. “I’m very grateful to the committee for choosing Newton,” he said. “We are in the theatres today and this announcement will help in making more people watch the film. After all, this is a film we made for India.”
Other movies nominated in the category include Ruben Ostlund’s The Square from Sweden, Fatih Akin’s In the Fade from Germany, Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father from Cambodia, Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman from Chile, Farhan Alam’s Sawan from Pakistan and Robin Campillo’s BPM: Beats Per Minute from France.