Estonian-Georgian Film 'Tangerines' to Be Submitted for an Oscar Nomination
"Tangerines," one of the most internationally successful films involving Estonian filmmakers, will be submitted for the category of best foreign language film at the 87th annual American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards ceremony.
The film tells a story that takes place in 1992 during the war in Abkhazia in an Estonian village situated there. In the village, whose residents have fled from war, injured fighters from two opposite sides of the battle front happen to all be staying in the same house of an Estonian.
“Tangerines” has participated in twenty-eight international film festivals and won eighteen awards – the Best Estonian film at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, the International Federation of Film Societies Award, Best Director and Audience Award at the Warsaw Film Festival, the Special Jury Award, Audience Award and the German film distributors recommendation at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Festival, the Grand Prix at the War on Screen, Bifest Bari and Oostende Festivals, Best Film and Best Screenplay Awards at the Fajri Film Festival in Iran, the Best Actor Award at the Eurasia Festival in Kazakhstan, the Special Jury Prize in Jerusalem, Best Director Award in Tbilisi, the Audience Award in Palm Springs, 3rd place in Seattle, and the Jury Prize at the Wine Country Film Festival in California. “Tangerines” has won the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Culture Award, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia’s Film of the Year and the Estonian Film Critics Society Film of the Year in 2013.
Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the submission of „Tangerines“ with 20,000 euros that are necessary for preparations to nominate the film for an Academy Award.
Former Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that the ability of the filmmakers who made the Estonian-Georgian co-produced feature film “Tangerines” to show political and security problems from a human-centred point of view is worthy of recognition. “The film has already won several awards at international film festivals. To be nominated in the best foreign language film category would however be a first in Estonian cinematic history and a great source of recognition for our films and the entire country,” he said.