"Dear Comrades!" and Russia at the Oscars
Friday, November 13, 2020 at 8:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Aleksandr Petrov, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Best International Film, Dear Comrades, Nikita Mikhalkov, Oscars (20), Russia

by Nathaniel R

Russia has announced that Andrey Konchalovskiy's Dear Comrades!, a Grand Jury Prize winner in Venice, will be their selection for the Oscars. This is the third time Russia has selected Konchalovsky to submit them. The 83 year old director is deeply tied to Russian cinematic history. He's the elder brother of Russia's most Oscar-loved director Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) and he began his career writing and working for the legendary Andrei Tarkovsky (on Ivan's Childhood and Andre Rublev) in the early 1960s before launching his own directorial career.  He even tried his hand at English language films in the 1980s making Duet for One with Julie Andrews and the underappreciated Shy People with Barbara Hershey. His first Russian submission House of Fools in 2002 was unsuccessul. His second submission, the hugely lauded Paradise  in 2016, got close to the nomination, securing a finalist spot for itself. Will the third time be the charm? The official synopsis goes like so...

When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist.

Hot on the heels of that news NEON has announced that they're grabbed US distribution though no release date has been announced. Let's look at Russia's history with Oscar after the jump...

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980) was the Soviet Union's last Oscar win before their collapse in the early 90sSOVIET UNION STATS
Submitting from 1963-1991
24 Total Submissions
9 Nominations 
3 Winners

Most of the films submitted during the Soviet Union era were Russian films though a handful of submissions were from areas we know now as the countries of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Belarus, and the Ukraine. But of the 9 actual nominees all but one were Russian films, the sole exception being Wartime Romance from The Ukraine. The Russian nominees under the Soviet Union were...

 

 

RUSSIA'S OSCAR STATS
Submitting since 1992
28 Total Submissions 
7 Nominations (and 2 Additional Finalists)
1 Win 

Burnt By The Sun (1994) was Russia's second nomination and only win since the collapse of the Soviet Union

 

KEY SUBMISSIONS 

Most Frequently Submitted Post-Soviet Directors for Best International Feature Film

  1. Nikita Mikhalkov (6 submissions, 3 nominated films, 1 of which won)
  2. Andrey Zvyagintsev (3 submissions, 2 nominated films)
  3. Andrei Konchalovsky (3 submissions, 1 finalist among them, plus the current submission)
  4. [TIE] 2 submissions, neither nominated: Fedor Bondarchuk and Karen Shakhnazarov (2 submissions, neither nominated)

Celebrated animator Aleksandr PetrovMost Oscar-Honored Russian Artists

 

  1. Aleksandr Petrov (4 nominations, 1 win in Animated Short)
  2. Nikita Mikhalhov (3 nominations, 1 win in Best International Film*)
  3. Natalie Wood (3 nominations in acting) she was American, yes, but born to Russian parents, so first generation Russian-American.
  4. [TIE] 2 nominations each: Maria Ouspnskaya (Supporting Actress) Andrei Zvyagintsev (Best International Film*)

 

NOTE: Several other Russians have been nominated (and some have won) a single time but we're only counting multiple nominees in these lists we've been doing to make it more manageable.

* Their nominations are not "official" since they belong to the country rather than the filmmaker -- an annoying Oscar distinction - but we think it should count for the directors who had more to do with the making of the picture than the country they live in.

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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