Russia announces decision to boycott Oscars

Russia has announced that it will not be submitting any films for consideration at this year's Oscars.

It is the first time the country have not participated in the Academy Awards since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Russian academy released a statement saying: “The presidium of the Film Academy of Russia has decided not to nominate a national film for the Oscars award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2022."

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In response, the chairman of Russia's Oscars committee resigned in protest.

Pavel Chukhray wrote a letter which claimed that the decision was "illegal" and done "behind his back".

Russia has won the Best Foreign Language Film award just once, in 1994, with Burnt by the Sun which is directed by Nikita Mikhalkov and is set during a Stalinist repression in 1936.

Mikhalkov has since become the leader of the Russian Cinematographers Union and has backed Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

Mikhalkov has also been vocal in wanting Russia to boycott the Oscars, saying to Russian media: “It seems to me that choosing a film that will represent Russia in a country, which in reality currently denies the existence of Russia, simply does not make sense."

Russia has a number of prominent filmmakers including Andrey Zvyagintsev who's films Leviathan and Loveless were both critically acclaimed and nominated for Oscars.

Other directors such as Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko have left Russia since the beginning of the conflict earlier this year.

Russia has also put Vitaly Mansky, one of the country’s most celebrated documentary film-makers and a critic of the invasion of Ukraine, on a wanted list.

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