Director calls Oscars system 'out of date'

Payal Kapadia, a filmmaker, has spoken out against the criteria for nominating films to the Academy Awards.

Her movie All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at Cannes but failed to get a spot at the Oscars after Laapataa Ladies was chosen as India’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

“It was nice to be considered, but it was also nice that a really good film got selected,” she told Vanity Fair. 

“But the world is moving beyond these national boundaries. It would be nice if we embrace having a more open idea to cinema, where it’s not bound by its country, but more of a cinematic language or something that is connectable by everyone.”

Elsewhere in the interview, she criticized the system of Oscars by which they choose their nominees, calling it “a bit archaic in my view.”

“You don’t see so much independent cinema from India traveling and being seen around the world. And if you see the kind of films being made in India, it’s mostly not women’s stories," Payal concluded.