Nepal Picks ‘White Sun’ as Oscars Contender
Nepal’s Oscar selection committee has unanimously chosen Deepak Rauniyar’s multi award-winning “White Sun” (“Seto Surya”) as the country’s entry in the foreign language category.
A portrait of post-civil war Nepal during the fragile deadlocked peace process, the film has had considerable festival play. It debutes in Venice’s Horizons strand and went to Toronto, Busan, Singapore, Dubai, Palm Springs, Rotterdam, Goteborg, Hong Kong, Sydney, Edinburgh and Karlovy Vary.
En route, the film picked up awards including the Interfilm Award at Venice, the Silver Screen Award for best Asian feature film at Singapore, the New Voices/New Visions Grand Jury Prize at Palm Springs, and the audience award, Don Quixote award and Ecumenical jury award at Fribourg.
The film stars Dayahang Rai, Asha Maya Magrati and Rabindra Singh Baniya and is a Nepal/U.S./Netherlands/Qatar co-production. Producers include Joslyn Barnes (“Cameraperson”) and Michel Merkt (“Toni Erdmann”), while Danny Glover is an executive producer. The Match Factory is handling international sales.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will reveal the foreign language shortlist in December. Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 23 and the awards will take place in Los Angeles March 4.
Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
