Latvia picks Viesturs Kairišs’s January as its Oscars bid
- After it was crowned Best International Feature at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, the National Film Centre of Latvia is pinning all its hopes on this Latvian-Lithuanian-Polish co-production
Latvia has officially announced its Oscars bid in the Best International Feature Film category of the 2023 Academy Awards. A panel of experts selected by the National Film Centre of Latvia picked Viesturs Kairišs’s latest effort, January [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was crowned Best International Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
In part inspired by the helmer’s real life, January is set in 1991. In it, 19-year-old Jazis’ love of filmmaking, family and friends is rocked as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover.
The panel of experts included Ieva Romanova (chair of the Latvian Filmmakers Union), Dace Pūce (the director of last year’s Academy Awards bid, The Pit [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Alise Ģelze (producer and chair of the panel of film-industry experts at the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia), Edmunds Jansons (animation director and expert working for the film centre on feature projects), Kristīne Simsone (film critic and journalist), Dace Vilsone (State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and member of the Film Board) and Dita Rietuma (film historian and head of the National Film Centre of Latvia).
Among the other contenders were Signe Baumane’s animated musical My Love Affair with Marriage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Signe Baumane
film profile], Linda Olte’s debut, Sisters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Matīss Kaža’s Neon Spring [+see also:
film review
film profile] and Ināra Kolmane’s Soviet Milk, based on a popular novel penned by Nora Ikstena.
January was produced by Inese Boka-Grube and Gints Grube for Latvia’s Mistrus Media, and co-produced by Lithuania’s Artbox and Poland’s Staron Film, with backing from the National Film Centre of Latvia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Polish Film Institute, Eurimages, Latvijas Mobilais Telefons, Latvian Television, the Latvian Foundation, and the Education, Culture and Sports Department of Riga City Council. Finland’s The Yellow Affair is in charge of its international sales. The movie is set to have its domestic premiere in November.
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