Chhello Show, All That Breathes, song from RRR, The Elephant Whisperers enter Oscars 2023 shortlist

India’s official entry to the upcoming Oscars Chhello Show, acclaimed documentary feature All That Breathes, documentary short The Elephant Whisperers, and Naatu Naatu — the song from period action blockbuster RRR have made it to the 95th Academy Awards shortlist, the organisers said on Thursday morning.

Advertisement

The nominations will be announced on January 24, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on March 12

While Chhello Show is a part of the international feature film shortlist, Naatu Naatu from RRR appears on the music (original song) shortlist. All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers are included in the shortlists of documentary feature and documentary short segments, respectively.

There are 15 contenders in the shortlists of the above four categories.

Directed by Pan Nalin and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Dheer Momaya, Chhello Show (Last Film Show) is a Gujarati-language coming-of-age story of a young boy’s love affair with cinema in a Saurashtra village.

“Ever since our selection by the Film Federation of India as India’s Official Entry to the 95th Oscars, we knew in our hearts that the film was bound for something special.” Kapur, Momaya and Nalin said in a joint statement

Chhello Show will compete with films, including Argentina, 1985 (Argentina), Decision to Leave (South Korea), All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany), Close (Belgium) and The Blue Caftan (Morocco).

This is the third major international nomination for Naatu Naatu, the popular Telugu song from SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus RRR. As part of the music (original song) Oscars shortlist, Naatu Naatu will face off with 14 other tracks, which include Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength) from Avatar: The Way of Water, Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ciao Papa from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick, and Carolina from Where the Crawdads Sing.

Naatu Naatu, composed by MM Keeravaani and penned by Kala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj, was previously nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award.

Shaunak Sen’s celebrated film All That Breathes, an internationally co-produced Hindi title, is vying for a spot in the top five of the best documentary feature category.

It previously won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and earned Sen the Golden Eye award for the best documentary at the 2022 Cannes.

Other shortlisted nominees in the documentary feature category are—All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Bad Axe, Children of the Mist, Descendant, Fire of Love, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, Hidden Letters, A House Made of Splinters, The Janes, Last Flight Home, Moonage Daydream, Navalny, Retrograde and The Territory.

Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers is a Tamil documentary short that depicts an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephants and their caretakers. It is produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain of Sikhya Entertainment. To make it to the final five of the documentary short category, The Elephant Whisperers will have to fight it out with The Flagmakers, Nuisance Bear, Shut Up and Paint, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison, Anastasia, and nine other documentary shorts in the section. The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on January 24, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on March 12.