One year after Borat, Kazakhstan gets first ever Oscar nod
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AFP) — One year after the antics of Borat thrust Kazakhstan into the Oscars limelight, the country had greater cause to celebrate Tuesday after earning its first Academy Awards nomination.
Kazakhstan's entry "Mongol," which tells the epic story of the early life of Genghis Khan, was named amongst the nominees in the best foreign film category for this year's Oscars.
It was only the second time Kazakhstan had submitted a film for consideration for the Oscars foreign film award after last year's entry "Nomad," by the same director Sergei Bodrov.
However "Mongol" faces competition from Poland's entry, "Katyn," directed by the veteran film-maker Andrzej Wajda. Wajda, 81, earned an honorary Oscar in 2000 in recognition of five decades of film-making. His latest film spotlights the massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops in 1940.
Other nominees include, Russia's "12," about a jury deliberating its verdict on a Chechen boy accused of murdering his stepfather, and Israel's "Beaufort," about Israeli soldiers based in Lebanon as they prepare to withdraw.
The other nominee is Austria's "The Counterfeiters," Stefan Ruzowitzky's drama based on a Nazi-led counterfeiting operation in the 1930s.
