"Joyland" banned in Pakistan. Can it still compete at the Oscars?
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 1:10PM by Nathaniel R
Saim Sadiq (via Instagram, left) and a memorable shot from his feature debut "Joyland" (right)
Censorship has been part of the history of art forever. The ways in which we think of censorship in Hollywood cinema usually involve ratings boards or production codes... self-censorship from the industry to prevent outside censorship from the government. It's less a case of banning art than an attempt to keep storytellers in line with accepted norms, however conservative those norms might be in their time. When the story of censorship visibly collides with the Oscar race, though, it's usually across the border and in the Best International Feature Film category. Now we have another of those stories via Pakistan's Oscar submission Joyland.
The movie, a brilliant feature debut from 31 year old filmmaker Saim Sadiq, is a drama about a young husband in Lahore who falls for a trans performer after being hired by a local dance theater. It first came to international attention when it premiered at Cannes (the first Pakistani movie to do so) and won both Un Certain Regard and the Queer Palm. Just a week before its premiere in Pakistan its release was denied, endangering its Oscar run. Questions naturally crop out like "Why would a country submit a film and then ban it?" and "Can it still compete?" so let's answer those...
Both questions are simple and complicated simultaneously so let's take them individually
the trailer released before the film was banned in Pakistan. It's no longer opening as promised here at trailer's end.
Why would a country submit and then ban a film?
The reason this one is complicated is that it involves the politics and film industries of other nations and how much those intertwine. These are things foreigners or even non film-obsessives within those nations aren't always privvy to. So it bears repeating some very basics of the International category that casual Oscar watchers rarely seem to fully grasp.
- Each country is allowed just one competing film. This is to prevent giant prolific film industries from thoroughly dominating in order to give all cinemas a (theoretically) equal chance to be honored.
- The Academy has NO say in which films are submitted... though they do make rulings on eligibility after a film is submitted (i.e. does it meet the categories perimeters of eligibility)
- How the submission is selected varies considerably from country to country. And again, the Academy has no say in how other countries do their film business.
In Pakistan the submissions are determined by the "Pakistani Academy Selection Committee" which is currently run by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She was the first Pakistani ever nominated for an Oscar and she's won twice for the documentary shorts Saving Face (2011) and A Girl in the River (2015). The only other Pakistani Oscar winner (to date) is the actor Riz Ahmed who won in the live action short category and is, coincidentally, an executive producer on Joyland.
Most selection committees are made up of entertainment industry professionals rather than government officials. Some governments get involved more than others depending on how 'hands on' or 'hands off' they are about the Arts in general. Though Joyland originally successfully passed the strict censorship boards in Pakistan, a country where the LGBTQ community is very vulnerable and gay relationships are illegal, complaints from right wing groups had the effect of reversing the decision. It's now officially been deemed a "highly objectional" film at home, even though the people complaining haven't seen it since it hasn't played there.
Ironically if Joyland is nominated, it will be Pakistan credited as the official nominee even though the country won't allow the film to be shown in cinemas.
So in short, "Pakistan" itself did not submit the film, but the Pakistani Academy Selection Committee did. That's where where the disconnect is between the honoring of a film and then the shunning of the same film.
Can it still compete at the Oscars?
img via IMDb
Joyland has been a hit on the festival circuit in numerous countries. But festival screenings alone aren't enough for Oscar contention. You need a theatrical release of seven consecutive days (outside the US) by the end of November to compete in this particular category, Joyland is thus potentially out of the race. The producers are hoping to fix the problem with a quick month-earlier than scheduled release in France. At this late juncture, Pakistan cannot simply choose another film to replace this one (nor should they).
We think, in the end, that this excellent drama will be ruled eligible to compete for Best International Feature Film. Since the film doesn't yet have US distribution (we expect that will change soon) it will not be eligible in other categories. But with the Academy you can never be sure until they make a ruling on any given case. They have been inconsistent from time to time.
But, here's something hopeful that TFE's own contributor Juan Carlos Ojano pointed out on Twitter: the Academy faced a similar dilemma with Zhang Yimou's early masterpiece Ju Dou and ruled in its favor.
Reminds me of China banning JU DOU in 1990 and trying to have it withdrawn from the #Oscars. But since producers already secured a screening, eligibility was maintained and it still ended up keeping its nom for Foreign Language Film. Here’s hoping JOYLAND does the same thing. https://t.co/zii9nnQJmd
— Juan Carlos Ojano 🌷 (@carlosojano) November 13, 2022
In the end Ju Dou was nominated but lost (it should have been a slam-dunk win given the field in 1990 but that's a different topic altogether).
Joyland has already screened for some Academy members to responses that have made the publicists very hopeful. Having seen the picture, we share the optimism. It will be a great shame if this startling debut isn't allowed to compete. Not only is the story rich and the characters three dimensional, but the cinematography is exquisite. If there is any justice, new director Saim Sadiq and the also new cinematographer Joe Saade (Costa Brava, Lebanon) will both have rich prolific careers ahead.
Reader Comments (3)
I think the ban might actually be helpful since it's going to get the film more attention as I would like to see this. If it is something that scares them, then people are going to want to see this even more.
Sometimes momentum really can take a film far in this category. I think of the documentaries like Honeyland, Flee and especially Collective (the romanian angle). Once people begin to really like the idea of a movie being nominated (which a banned film could easily attain) then it could happen.
Since when can the seven-day run take place in another country? That does not make sense! As I remember, the film has to run in the country that is submitting it. When did the rule change?