Barfi is out of the Oscars Race

Anurag Basu’s ‘Barfi’, chronicling the tender romance of a hearing and speech impaired boy, is out of the Oscars race as the Academy announced the list of nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 85th Academy Awards.
Seventy-one films had originally qualified in the category. Michael Haneke’s ‘Amour’, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s ‘The Intouchables’ are among the shortlisted films.
Barfi saw some exemplary performances by Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Illeana D’Cruz. But the film was mired in controversy soon after its release. Basu was accused of plagiarism after scenes from Barfi were found copied or influenced by several famous films.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Austria, ‘Amour,’ Michael Haneke, director
Canada, ‘War Witch,’ Kim Nguyen, director
Chile, ‘No,’ Pablo Larraín, director
Denmark, ‘A Royal Affair,’ Nikolaj Arcel, director
France, ‘The Intouchables,’ Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, directors
Iceland, ‘The Deep,’ Baltasar Kormakur, director
Norway, ‘Kon-Tiki,’ Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, directors
Romania, ‘Beyond the Hills,’ Cristian Mungiu, director
Switzerland, ‘Sister,’ Ursula Meier, director.
Foreign Language Film nominations for 2012 are again being determined in two phases. According to a press release on the Academy website, the Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 71 eligible films between mid-October and December 17.
The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.
The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles, the release said. The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 am PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre.