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Why Cannes Winner ‘All We Imagine as Light’ Was Snubbed by India’s Oscar Committee in Favor of ‘Laapataa Ladies’

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Why Cannes Winner ‘All We Imagine as Light’ Was Snubbed by India’s Oscar Committee in Favor of ‘Laapataa Ladies’

Each year, as fall approaches, India’s famously unpredictable Oscar committee takes center stage to pick their candidate in a process as dramatic as any Bollywood blockbuster.

As always, the influential body behind the committee, the Film Federation of India (FFI), brought together a special jury of industry veterans to sift through the year’s cinematic offerings to choose the one film that will represent India. But while the country boasts the world’s most prolific film industry, its track record in the international feature film race has fallen short with many missed opportunities. The most notorious example is Ritesh Batra’s “The Lunchbox” which was not selected in 2013 despite having earned widespread critical laurels.

Some eyebrows were also raised when global hit “RRR” wasn’t picked as India’s Oscar candidate in 2022. The FFI saved face, nevertheless, after its official submission, Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show,” made the international features shortlist. “RRR” was submitted separately and went on to win the Oscar for original song. But this time around, the snub of “All We Imagine as Light,” which was the first Indian film to play in competition at Cannes in 30 years and was even shortlisted by France’s Oscar committee, may set a new precedent.

This year’s choice, Kiran Rao’s “Laapataa Ladies” (“Lost Ladies”) — despite being an acclaimed film that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and with a successful box office run in India — could be considered disappointing for some, especially those outside of the Indian film industry. That’s because all the latest heat and noise has been in favor of “All We Imagine as Light,” which broke a 30-year Cannes competition hoodoo for India, went on to win the Grand Jury Prize and suddenly elevated its director Payal Kapadia from documentary-maker to celebrated auteur.

Kapadia became the first Indian woman filmmaker to win the Grand Prize at Cannes and the film is in the process of being one of the most widely distributed Indian indie films of all time. Deals are in place for the U.S., U.K. and France — the three countries with the highest numbers of Academy voters. The selection of the movie as India’s Oscar candidate appeared to be a shoo-in, especially after it made the French Oscar shortlist. Ultimately, the French committee Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” leaving “All We Imagine as Light” up for grabs by India’s committee.

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So, why did “Laapataa Ladies” win India’s support? Apart from its obvious cinematic merits, the answer could lie in the financial clout of one of its producers — billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Indian behemoth Jio Studios, part of India’s largest conglomerate, Reliance Industries Limited — and the visibility of another, Aamir Khan, who scored an Oscar nomination for “Lagaan.” Campaigning is expensive business and now that “Laapataa Ladies” is India’s choice, it will need the combined might of its producers to see it reach the international feature shortlist. The film is also already available on Netflix, where it is a streaming success, adding to its accessibility.

In a statement upon its Oscar selection, Jyoti Deshpande, president of media and content business at Reliance Industries Limited, said: ”’Laapataa Ladies’ being selected as India’s entry for Oscar is a true testimony of our vision and commitment to make in India and show the world… This film has got unlimited love from audiences all over the world already and is one of the most watched films globally on OTT [streaming] after its unusually long and resilient theatrical run… Jio Studios will do everything in our power to make India proud on a global stage and I thank the Film Federation of India for this honor and privilege.”

Among the other Indian contenders who didn’t make the cut, Anand Ekarshi’s “Aattam” won best film this year at India’s National Film Awards and was a frontrunner — but not a shoo-in — because, unlike some other countries such as Israel, the national prize winner in India is not guaranteed Oscar selection.

Thematically, all three of India’s frontrunners this year were women-oriented subjects. Both “All We Imagine as Light” and “Laapataa Ladies” are female empowerment stories, while “Aattam” dealt with the aftermath of a sexual assault incident.

The FFI said in its citation: “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance. Well-defined, powerful characters in one world, ‘Laapataa Ladies’ (Hindi) captures this diversity perfectly, though in a semi-idyllic world and in a tongue-in-cheek way. It shows you that women can happily desire to be homemakers as well as rebel and be entrepreneurially inclined. A story that can simultaneously be seen as one that needs change, and one that can bring about change. ‘Laapataa Ladies’ (Hindi) is a film that can engage, entertain and make sense not just to women in India but universally as well.”

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Despite boasting a rich cinematic heritage and a massive film output, India has seen only three of its submissions make it to the final Oscar nominations: “Mother India” (1957), “Salaam Bombay!” (1988) and “Lagaan” (2001). The country is still waiting for its first win in the international category, a lacuna that adds even more pressure to the annual selection process.

Rao said: “I am deeply honored and beyond delighted that our film ‘Laapataa Ladies’ has been chosen as India’s official entry to the Academy Awards. This recognition is a testament to the tireless work of my entire team, whose dedication and passion brought this story to life. Cinema has always been a powerful medium to connect hearts, transcend boundaries, and ignite meaningful conversations. I hope that this film will resonate with audiences across the world, just as it has in India.”

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SZA Finally Releases Long-Delayed ‘Lana’ Album, Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco

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SZA Finally Releases Long-Delayed ‘Lana’ Album, Featuring Kendrick Lamar, Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco

SZA‘s long-awaited the deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning 2022 album “SOS,” which is titled “Lana,” has finally arrived. The album has been through a long series of false alarms — it seemed imminent back in February, when she released the song “Saturn” — and bears artwork similar to the insect-and-forest imagery featured during her tours last summer, but it’s finally here. Variety‘s full review of the album will appear this weekend.

The album features Kendrick Lamar on the track “30 for 30” (SZA appears on two songs on his recent “GNX” album) and production from Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco on one song each. Her collaborators on the other songs are largely “SOS” producers and writers like Michael Uzowuru, ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and others.

She previewed the album with a video for the song “Drive,” featuring Ben Stiller, on Thursday night. “Lana”‘s full tracklist appears below:

     1     No More Hiding – produced by Michael Uzowuru
 
      2     What Do I Do – produced by Benny Blanco, Carter Lang and ThankGod4Cody
 
      3     30 for 30 feat. Kendrick Lamar – produced by J White
 
      4     Diamond Boy (DTM) – produced by Carter, Scum, Solomonophonic, Declan and Michael Uzowuru 
 
      5     BMF – produced by Carter Lang, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi
 
      6     Scorsese Baby Daddy – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Tyler Johnson
 
      7     Love Me 4 Me – produced by Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and Nick Lee 
 
      8     Chill Baby – produced by Lil Yachty, Sad Pony, Cade, Calvin Dickinson, iseeyou and Julian Fried
 
      9     My Turn – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Rob Bisel
 
      10    Crybaby – produced by ThankGod4Cody, Carter Lang and Declan 
 
      11    Kitchen – produced by ThankGod4Cody
 
      12    Get Behind Me (interlude) – produced by Michael Uzowuru 
 
      13    Drive – produced by ThankGod4Cody and Billy Lemon
 
      14    Another Life – produced by Michael Uzowuru and Dylan Wiggins 
 
      15    Saturn – produced by Carter Lang, Rob Bisel, Solomonophonic and Monsune

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SZA’s forthcoming stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar presents a prime opportunity to release new material — she’s been touring behind “SOS” since it was released two years ago.

The latest round of teasers began a week ago, on the two-year anniversary of “SOS,” with a short video trailer that included a snippet of one of the album’s tracks. The video depicts SZA in a nature setting, pulling down her baggy camo pants to pee by a creek. She looks directly into the camera before taking a tissue out of her pocket to wipe herself up as the words “Lana” appear across the screen. She lyrics to the song go, “You know we got a real history/That’s the reason I can’t choose me/You know that dick been good to me/You make it hard for me to choose me.”

While SZA has been talking about a deluxe edition of “SOS” since that album’s release, she explained the album and its to Variety in August of last year: “[‘Lana’] is outtakes [from ‘SOS’] and new stuff, too — I added a couple of songs. It’s like a whole new project. It’s called ‘Lana’ — my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of SOS.”

The album seemed imminent in February when she released “Saturn,” but just a few weeks later, SZA became frustrated by fans leaking songs and posted that she would be “starting ‘Lana’ from scratch” because “y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe.” She continued, “At this point, y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be starting ‘Lana’ from scratch. Do not ask me about it again,” adding a few minutes later, “I’ll round up the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems like a fair deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward. In a subsequent series of tweets, she said the deluxe edition of SOS will now feature “the leaks and outtakes” and “Lana” will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time and music no one’s ever heard before,” she wrote. However, she seems to have reverted to her previous plan.

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Malaysia agrees to resume 'no find, no fee' hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after plane disappeared

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Malaysia agrees to resume 'no find, no fee' hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after plane disappeared

Malaysia’s government has agreed in principle to accept a second “no find, no fee” proposal from a U.S. company to renew the hunt for flight MH370, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean more than 10 years ago, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Friday.

Loke said Cabinet ministers gave the nod at their meeting last week for Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to continue the seabed search operation at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the ocean next year.

MALAYSIA ANNOUNCES RENEWED PUSH TO FIND MH370 DECADE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE: ‘SEARCH MUST GO ON’

“The proposed new search area, identified by Ocean Infinity, is based on the latest information and data analyses conducted by experts and researchers. The company’s proposal is credible,” he said in a statement.

The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

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Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine scans the water in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia from a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, March 22, 2014.  (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.

Under the new deal, Ocean Infinity will get $70 million only if significant wreckage is discovered, Loke said. He said his ministry will finalize negotiations with Ocean Infinity in early 2025. The firm has indicated that January-April is the best period for the search, he said.

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“This decision reflects the government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of MH370 passengers,” he added.

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Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year reportedly said the the company had improved its technology since 2018. He has said the firm is working with many experts to analyze data and narrow the search area to the most likely site.

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Last-minute budget bill to prevent US government shutdown prevails in House

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Last-minute budget bill to prevent US government shutdown prevails in House

A last-minute budget bill has passed in the United States House of Representatives to keep the federal government funded and running through mid-March, averting an impending shutdown.

The continuing resolution now progresses to the Senate with only hours to spare before the shutdown is slated to take effect on Saturday at 12:01am local time (05:01 GMT).

On Friday evening, the temporary budget legislation sailed through the House with an overwhelming 366 votes in support.

Only 34 representatives, all Republican, voted against the bill. One Democrat, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, abstained by voting “present”.

“We are really grateful that tonight, in bipartisan fashion with overwhelming majority of votes, we passed the American Relief Act of 2025,” Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said in a news conference after the vote.

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The stopgap bill, however, omitted one key issue that had stalled recent negotiations: the debt ceiling.

Normally, Congress weighs federal spending separately from the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow.

But this week, President-elect Donald Trump scuttled an earlier bipartisan bill in part because it did not extend or abolish the debt ceiling, which he compared with a “guillotine” dangling over his incoming administration.

The debt ceiling has become a divisive issue among Republicans, some of whom feared extending or eliminating it would pave the way for unfettered government spending.

Trump, for his part, threatened to set up primary challenges for any Republican who opposed his plan. He signalled that he preferred the debt ceiling debate to happen under the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat and his erstwhile election rival.

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“Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday. “This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats! They are looking to embarrass us in June when it comes up for a Vote.”

Representative Chip Roy of Texas, one of the most outspoken Republican opponents to raising the debt ceiling, leaves a budget meeting on December 20 [J Scott Applewhite/AP Photo]

Trump’s opposition to this week’s bipartisan legislation put him at odds with Johnson, another top Republican leader. Johnson’s predecessor for the speakership, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was ousted last year in a historic vote over his role in passing a bipartisan spending bill.

After the first bipartisan bill was scuttled on Wednesday, Trump backed another version that failed in the House a day later, on Thursday. All Democrats opposed it, as well as 38 Republicans.

Friday’s bill managed to restore Democratic support after closed-door negotiations. In his remarks after the vote, Johnson tried to cast the latest spending deal as a win for Trump’s America First economic platform.

“This is America First legislation, because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people,” Johnson said.

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He also hinted at changes to come in January, when a new Congress is sworn in and Donald Trump takes office for a second term. When that happens, Republicans will hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.

“In January, we will make a sea change in Washington,” Johnson said. “Things are going to be very different around here. This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on spending for 2025.”

Like earlier bills, the temporary stopgap measure that passed on Friday contains approximately $10bn in farm aid and $100bn in disaster relief, a priority after the destruction of hurricanes like Helene and Milton.

But the sabre-rattling that had accompanied an earlier version of the bill had largely subsided by Friday night, with Trump allies like billionaire Elon Musk striking a conciliatory note.

Musk, who had decried a Wednesday version of the bill as “criminal”, praised Speaker Johnson after the vote on Friday night for streamlining the legislation.

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“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” he wrote on his social media platform X. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”

Democrats, meanwhile, questioned Musk’s growing influence over the Republican Party. Musk is slated to advise Trump’s incoming administration in a new role, as part of a nongovernmental, yet-to-be-established agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Obviously, the thing Donald Trump wanted, he didn’t get,” Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida told reporters as he walked down the Capitol steps. “It looks like Elon got some of the things he wanted. So that’s interesting.”

Moskowitz credited the Democrats for giving the Republicans the majority needed to pass the bill in the House, despite internal dissent within the right-leaning party.

“The drama that went on here for the last two days didn’t need to happen,” he said. “And we literally wound up in the same place we were always going to wind up in, which was the Democrats providing the majority of the votes to keep the government home open and deliver for the American people.”

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