“Writing With Fire” directors screamed and laughed while celebrating their nominations for Oscars 2022.
Written By : Aashish Vashistha
On Tuesday, Indian documentary film Writing With Fire’ has made its entry to the top five nominations in the best documentary feature category which is announced for the Academy Awards. This is for the first time that Indian feature documentary has made its place in the nominations. This movie is directed by filmmakers Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas. This movie narrates the story of journalists behind the running of the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya, and the transition they make from print to digital journalism aided by smartphones.
The movie was produced under Ghosh and Thomas’s movie production banne, Black Ticket Films, the documentary feature had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two awards, the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award: Impact for Change in the World Cinema Documentary category.
Produced under Ghosh and Thomas’s movie production banner Black Ticket Films, the documentary feature had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two awards, the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award: Impact for Change in the World Cinema Documentary category.Ghosh and Thomas are couple and they have started filming in 2016, the year that Khabar Lahariya reporters moved to digital tools. According to the New York Times, ” If Writing With Fire wins the Oscar at the ceremony scheduled for end of March, it will make history as the first film about India directed by Indians to receive an Oscar. “It will also give a boost to democracy’s unsung champions at a time when democratic norms are under threat around the world,”it said.
Another two commendable movies including, Tamil drama Jai Bhim starring Suriya that had streamed on Amazon Prime Video and Mohanlal’s Malayalam movie Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham (Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea), were also on the list of 276 movies eligible for this year’s Academy Awards. However, both of these movies did not make it to the final nomination list of the Academy Awards.Only three Indian movies have ever made it to the final list of Academy Award nominations – Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Lagaan (2001). Last year, Jallikattu, a Malayalam film about a hunt for a bull on the run, was India’s official entry to the Oscars. It would be amazing to see if ‘Writing With Fire’ will win the Academy Awards.