We have just received a very exciting news from Bhutan.
The Bhutanese film “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” has been nominated as one of the five finalists for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
It was one of five films carefully selected from representative films from 92 countries around the world. The fact that a Bhutanese film made it to the preliminary shortlist of 15, and then to the final five nominees, is a historic achievement and a new chapter in Bhutanese film history.
In March 2021, SEISA Kokusai High School Hachioji in Takao Campus held an online school screening of the film for staff and students of SEISA Group across Japan. Mr. Tshering Penjor, SEISA University Track & Field Club, Mr. Jimmy Dorji, SEISA Takao Campus, Mr. Tandin Wangchuk and Mr. Kinley Thering, SEISA Dohto University Judo club, Ms. Pema Selden, the University of Tokyo Graduate School, and Mr. Pawo Choyning Dorji, the director of the film, all participated in the online screening.
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 27th local time in the United States at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Please read a comment from Mr. Pao about the nomination.
“Today I am so very honored and proud, not as the filmmaker of an Oscar-nominated film but as a Bhutanese. The nomination of ‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom’ for Best International Feature Film is a historic first for Bhutan, a small but very special country with so much wisdom and compassion to share with the rest of the world. I am so grateful to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and all the members of the Academy for giving us this opportunity and platform to share ourselves with the world. The improbable journey of this little film from the glaciers of the Himalayas to the Oscars is a celebration of all the possibilities in art and creativity. We hope our film, displaying very simple and essential human values from one of the most remote places in the world, will continue to touch peoples’ hearts, especially during these difficult times.”
