Pakistan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards, Cake has dropped out of the Oscar race. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Monday announced that nine films have advanced to the next round of voting in the foreign language category.
Directed by Asim Abbasi, the film was earlier shown to the jury members of the Oscar committee in Los Angeles. Aamina Sheikh – one of the lead actress in Cake – attended the special screening and was thrilled to share her joy.
“They resonated, they felt it was a Pakistan that they had never seen before, they felt the characters and situations were those playing out in their own homes and lives. We all felt one, power of cinema reaffirmed,” she had tweeted.
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Hopes were also pinned on the Pakistani-Norwegian filmmaker Iram Haq’s drama What Will People Say. However, in another setback, that film is also out of the contest.
Read: Pakistan-Norwegian filmmaker’s ‘What Will People Say’ makes it to the Oscars
A total of 87 countries were originally vying for the prize this awards season. Among the nine shortlisted ones are Birds of Passage (Colombia), The Guilty (Denmark), Never Look Away (Germany), Shoplifters (Japan), Ayka (Kazakhstan), Capernaum (Lebanon), Roma (Mexico), Cold War (Poland) and Burning (South Korea).
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on January 22, 2019 – over a month ahead of the ceremony – which is slated to be held on February 24, 2019.
