The rules for Academy Award consideration are byzantine and difficult to understand.
Oscar eligible films have to be a certain length (a “feature” is anything over 40 minutes), have to have a certain type of theatrical run, and have to be advertised in a certain way, presumably in industry trade papers like Variety.
A film can play at a festival and still be eligible for Oscar consideration, but the festival run itself does not qualify as a theatrical release.
What counts as an animated film has also become nebulous, as a partially animated film like “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” was nominated for Best Animated Feature, while an even more animated film like “Avatar: The Way of Water” was not. The rules for what qualifies as an “International Feature” are even more convoluted.
The Academy does not scour the whole Earth looking for great cinema, but accept submissions — one
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