CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 82 of 120

Correct — C, Gully Boy. Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy was chosen in September 2019 as India's official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 92nd Academy Awards, the ceremony held in February 2020. The category had been renamed that year from Best Foreign Language Film, and each country may submit exactly one title, chosen by a national selection committee — in India's case a panel constituted by the Film Federation of India. The film did not go further: it was not among the ten shortlisted titles and was not nominated. Of the other three, two are genuine 2019 Indian films that were in contention before the committee and one is not a feature film in the relevant sense at all, which is what makes the set work as a question about the selection rather than about the award.

• (a)Bulbul Can Sing — Rima Das's Assamese film was a well-regarded Indian release of the same period and was discussed as a contender, but the committee's choice went elsewhere.
• (b)Super Deluxe — Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Tamil film was another strong 2019 title in the conversation, but it was not the film India sent.
• (d)And The Oscar Goes To — The odd one out by kind. This is a documentary title about the awards themselves rather than a feature that a country would submit in this category — a giveaway once the category's rules are remembered.

The Academy's international feature category works by country, not by film: each participating nation submits a single title through a designated body, the Academy shortlists ten and then nominates five. India's submission is chosen each year by a jury constituted by the Film Federation of India, and the choice is often contested because a commercially successful film and a critically admired one rarely coincide.

The safest route through the item is the category rule. Only one Indian film goes forward each year, so the question is asking which single title was sent for the ceremony of February 2020 — and Gully Boy, the year's most visible Indian release internationally, was it. If the title does not come to mind, option (d) can be discarded on kind alone. Anchor the record honestly: India has submitted a film almost every year for decades, and up to the 2020 exam had been nominated in the category three times — Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan — with Lagaan, submitted for the 2002 ceremony, the most recent. Gully Boy did not add to that list.

• Gully Boy, directed by Zoya Akhtar, was India's official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
• The category was renamed from Best Foreign Language Film to Best International Feature Film for that ceremony.
• Each country submits one film; the Academy shortlists ten and nominates five.
• Gully Boy was not shortlisted and was not nominated.
• India's submission is selected by a jury constituted by the Film Federation of India.

• Confusing being India's official entry with being nominated; most entries are neither shortlisted nor nominated.
• Assuming the highest-grossing Indian film of the year is automatically the entry — the jury often chooses otherwise.
• Mixing up the international feature category with the documentary or short-film categories, where Indian titles have won separately.

As a which-film-was-sent recall for a given ceremony, or by asking which Indian films have been nominated in the category.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Academy Award category formerly called Best Foreign Language Film is now known as

  • (a)Best World Cinema
  • (b)Best International Feature Film
  • (c)Best Global Film
  • (d)Best Non-English Film

  Answer(b) Best International Feature Film — the category was renamed for the 92nd Academy Awards.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following Indian films was nominated for the Academy Award in the foreign language film category?

  • (a)Gully Boy
  • (b)Lagaan
  • (c)Super Deluxe
  • (d)Bulbul Can Sing

  Answer(b) Lagaan — nominated for the 2002 ceremony, after Mother India and Salaam Bombay!; the other three were entries or contenders only.