The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, a documentary feature that China submitted as its entry for the best international feature Oscar competition, has been deemed ineligible for that award, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirms to THR that the film failed to meet their minimum language requirement for the award — a film must have “a predominantly (more than 50 percent) non-English dialogue track” to be eligible, per Academy rules — and that because Lisbon Maru was submitted just before the Oct. 2 submission deadline, it was too late, once this issue was discovered, for China to submit a different film.
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, which was directed by Fang Li, recounts the story of the titular “ship of death,” a cargo liner that was requisitioned by the Japanese Army during World War II. On Oct. 1, 1942, the ship was being used to transport POWs between Hong Kong and Japan when it was torpedoed in the East China Sea by an unwitting U.S. submarine. Three hundred and eighty four British POWs were rescued by Chinese fishermen, but 828 died, drowned or were shot by Japanese soldiers while attempting to escape.
Though the film is no longer eligible for the best international feature Oscar, it is still eligible for the best documentary feature Oscar, and a campaign is being mounted in pursuit of that recognition. It will next screen at the Asian World Film Festival on Nov. 18, and then begin its qualifying run at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica on Nov. 22, for which director Fang Li will be in town.
Two Chinese films have received nominations for the best international feature Oscar, 1990’s Ju Dou and 2002’s Hero. Neither won.
