Bhutan's 'The Monk and the Gun'  in shortlist; '2018' out of Oscar race

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Malayalam film '2018' is officially out of the race for the 2024 Oscars. It had to be one of the fifteen films that Academy members selected for the shortlist in order to be eligible to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category. 'The Monk and the Gun' from Bhutan and 'Perfect Days' from Japan were the only Asian films on the shortlist. Jude Anthany's '2018 – Everyone is a Hero' competed with 87 films, including those produced by streaming giants Netflix.

Nisha Pahuja's documentary based on the Jharkhand gang-rape 'To Kill a Tiger' has entered the second stage. Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' was excluded from the shortlist for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars. The Telugu film 'Twelfth Fail', which competed as an independent entry, is also out of the Oscar race. Spain's Netflix film 'Society of the Snow' and Morocco's 'Mother of All Lies' are the frontrunners. The shortlist was announced in 10 categories such as make-up, sound and visual effects.