Ida has all the features to please the Academy's members. – said Variety magazine's editor Tim Gray to the Polish Press Agency (PAP). – Ida is an excellently made and well acted film that deals with a serious matter. And the members of the American Academy Awards Committee tend to award serious films – says the journalist, who has written about the Oscars for more than 30 years.
Ida – Oscar favourite
According to the American journalist, one of the elements that counts in favour of Pawlikowski’s picture is its Holocaust theme, which is taken up by the Polish director in an subtle way.
Of course, this is not a movie that's going to make a fortune in the US. It’s only available in certain cinemas and on the Internet. But members of the Academy don't vote for the most popular film, but for art. Film critics recognized that Ida has all the attributes which members of the Academy like to award an Oscar for – stressed the journalist.
In September, Variety magazine conducted a survey of film critics, according to which Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida is a favourite in the category of best foreign language film.
"Even the person responsible for the promotion of another film, also submitted to the Oscar contest in the category of foreign language film, told me that Ida was an amazing, wonderful film", noted the PAP’s interviewee. The American critic didn’t exclude the possibility that the Polish film could be nominated also in other categories – as long as it fulfils the conditions of the contest and the members of the Academy, who nominate films, have a chance to see it. Gray warned that neither he nor the critics had seen all the films submitted for the competition this year and that there may be surprises.
I’d be surprised if Ida wasn’t at least nominated. But there is never a guarantee – he added. Especially that the deadline for submitting films in the category of best foreign language film passed on 1st October.
On the evening of the 9th of October in Los Angeles, the complete list of those films was announced. It turned out that the record was broken – as many as 83 countries submitted their films to the contest in the same category as Ida. Kosovo, Martinique, Malta and Panama did it for the first time. According to the critics that Variety magazine talked to, films such as Canada's Mommy by Xavier Dolan, Sweden's Turist by Ruben Oestlund or the Belgian Two Days, One Night by the Dardenne brothers, are also strong contenders for a nomination.
The Oscar Nominations in January
In December, the special committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will select a shortlist of nine films that will fight for a nomination. Last year's Polish candidate, Andrzej Wajda’s Wałęsa. Man of Hope, didn't get through to this stage of the competition. The ultimate selection of 5 nominated films which will compete for the Oscar will not be revealed until January.
The 87th Oscar Awards ceremony will take place on 22nd February, 2015. According to the Polish Film Institute, Ida has been seen by more than 110,000 people in its native country. In France, it’s drawn almost 500,000 to cinemas. The film has also received very good reviews in the American press. Critics from the New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and the aforementioned Variety heaped praise on Pawlikowski’s film, writing about it as a “revelation of the European cinema”.
Ida has been distributed in the cinemas of almost 60 countries and featured in the programmes of approximately 50 festivals, at which the film has received more than 30 awards. Pawlikowski triumphed, among others, at the 57th edition of the prestigious BFI London Film Festival in 2013 (organized by the British Film Institute).
Click here for Variety magazine's complete list of films submitted to the Oscar prize.
Source: PAP.