China’s official Oscar submission, The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, has been ruled ineligible for the Best International Feature Film category by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film failed to meet the Academy’s requirement for a predominantly non-English dialogue track, which states that more than 50% of the film’s dialogue must be in a language other than English.
Since the eligibility issue was discovered after the October 2 submission deadline, China could not provide an alternate entry for the competition this year.
About The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru
Directed by Fang Li, the documentary tells the harrowing story of the Lisbon Maru, a ship used by the Japanese Army during World War II to transport British prisoners of war (POWs) from Hong Kong to Japan. On October 1, 1942, a U.S. submarine accidentally torpedoed the vessel, not knowing it carried POWs. While 384 British POWs were saved by local Chinese fishermen, 828 tragically perished—either drowning or being shot by Japanese soldiers during escape attempts.
New Focus on Documentary Feature Oscar
Although ineligible for the international feature category, the film is still being promoted for a Best Documentary Feature nomination. Its next screening will take place at the Asian World Film Festival on November 18. After that, it will start its qualifying theatrical run at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica on November 22, with director Fang Li attending.
China’s Oscar History
China has received two previous nominations for Best International Feature Film: Ju Dou (1990) and Hero (2002). However, neither film won the coveted award. With The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru now out of the international race, China’s hopes this year rest on its success in the documentary category.
