Khaama Press
November 16, 2015

The Afghan film ‘Utopia’ which was nominated for Oscar Award has been disqualified by the Academy, it has been reported.

The decision to disqualify the film was reportedly taken after it was found that the film was containing too much English and was therefore not qualifying for the Oscar foreign-language race.

Directed by Hassan Nazer, Utopia was among 81 films nominated for the Award and marked Afghanistan’s 10th submission in the category since it first entered the Oscar race in 2002.

An Academy spokesperson quoted in local media reports in United States, said the film was partially filmed in English and partially in the Dari language and did not meet the rule that requires a submission to be primarily in a language other than English.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film failed to meet the requirement of rule 13, section A of the Academy’s “Special Rules for the Foreign Language Film Award,” which states that “A foreign language film is… a predominantly non-English dialogue track.” In other words, Utopia features too much English on top of its Dari-language content.

The Academy Awards is scheduled to be held on February 28th in Los Angeles and will be televised live in more than 225 countries around the globe.

The producer of the film Malalai Zikria who also played a lead role in the film was awarded the ‘Best Actress’ award by the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) earlier this month.

‘Utopia’ is about an Afghan woman who travels to Britain for artificial insemination which has been filmed in Afghanistan, India and Scotland.