Anurag Basu’s ‘Barfi!’ Out of Oscar Race

The Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra-Ileana D’Cruz starrer “Barfi!” is out of Oscar race after it failed to qualify for the next voting round in the best foreign film category, according to a Dec. 22 press release from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Out of the 71 foreign films that have qualified for foreign language Oscar, only nine films are advancing to the next round of voting. The shortlist will be winnowed down to five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. The films that have made it to the long list are Michael Haneke’s much lauded drama “Amour” from Austria; Kim Nguyen’s “War Witch” from Canada; Pablo Larrain’s “No” from Chile; Nikolaj Arcel’s “A Royal Affair” from Denmark; “The Intouchables” by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano from France; Baltasar Kormákur’s “The Deep” from Iceland; Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s “Kon-Tiki” from Norway; Ursula Meier’s “Sister” from Switzerland; and the Romanian film “Beyond the Hills” by Cristian Mungiu. The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live Jan. 10, 2013.