Asia eyes Oscar glitz, glamour even as its own films absent

Asia will be tuning in to the Oscars and its glitz and glamour, even though the region’s films are missing from the shortlists. Users of Chinese social media discuss animatedly whether comedy “Birdman” or the 12-years-in the-making “Boyhood” will win best picture — movies that haven’t been shown in theaters here but are available on streaming websites. The interest is evident even though Asian films are sorely lacking on the foreign language category shortlist — something that frustrates some Asian filmmakers and industry insiders, while others expected nothing less from voting dominated by Los Angeles-based Academy members.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to win an Oscar? But we don’t make films with an eye to the Academy. That whole thing is very Hollywood-centric.

Supratik Sen, a writer and assistant director on several Bollywood films

For film buffs and serious filmmakers in India, recognition at Cannes, Venice and Sundance “has more street cred,” Sen added. The lack of an Asian presence comes despite China and Japan being the world’s second- and third-biggest movie markets by ticket sales. Bollywood churns out more than a 1,000 films a year, and only five Indians have ever won at the Oscars, three of whom for 2009 Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” a British movie. Whether a film succeeds at the Oscars also comes down to distribution. Kim Mee-hyun, of the Korean Film Council, said that a movie’s quality often wasn’t as important as having a powerful U.S. distributor capable of exposing the work to the larger part of the academy’s 6,000 voting members, a boost Asian films rarely get.

Simply put, the Oscars represent the Americans’ view. If we challenge these American views with Asian films and cultures, it’s hard in the first place.

Steven Tu, a past programmer for the Taipei Film Festival and jury member for the Golden Horse awards

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