December 18, 2024 - Laapataa Ladies, India’s official entry at the 97th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category, is out of the Oscar’s race. The film failed to qualify for the next Oscar round in the Foreign Film section. The shortlist was announced yesterday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

However, Anuja, a short film on child labour and co-produced by Guneet Monga and Mindy Kaling, keeps India’s hopes alive in the Live Action Short films category after it was selected among 180 entries.

Laapataa Ladies (titled Lost Ladies in English), directed by Kiran Rao, was not part of the 15 feature films that were shortlisted. The final five will be selected from among the 15.

Some of the movies in the International Film category that made it to the next round are:

Brazil’s I’m Still Here

Canada’s Universal Language

Czech Republic’s Waves

Denmark’s The Girl with the Needle

France’s Emilia Perez

Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Iceland’s Touch

Latvia’s Flow

Norway’s Armand

Palestine’s From Ground Zero

Senegal’s Dahomey

Thailand’s How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies

United Kingdom’s Santosh

Santosh, an entry by UK, is a film about India and features Indian actors like Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar. It has been directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri.

The Film Federation of India (FFI) had unanimously selected Laapataa Ladies for the Oscar 2025 from 29 films, including the Cannes winner All We Imagine As Light. The selection had come in for much criticism as many had questioned the decision to select this film over Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light which was believed to be a better film for the official entry. Kapadia’s film has received a Golden Globe nomination.

Indian music composer Ricky Kej, who is a three-time Grammy winner, called Rao’s film an “entertaining movie” but a “wrong choice” to represent India at the Oscars. "When are we going to realise... year after year... we are choosing the wrong films? There are so many excellent movies made, and we should be winning the #InternationalFeatureFilm category every year!” he wrote.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who had earlier slammed FFI’s selection, wrote on X “Film Federation of India does it again! Their strike rate and selection of films year after year is impeccable.”

The Academy Awards final nights will be held on March 2, 2025 in Los Angeles.