Oscars 2021: Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy out of the race for Best International Feature Film award

Deepa Mehta’s latest film Funny Boy (2020), an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel, is no longer in the running for the Best International Feature Film award at the Oscars next year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) disqualified the entry from Canada for having too much dialogue in English.

Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, which selected the drama, said in a statement on Friday, “Although we were disappointed when informed by the Academy, we are excited to extend our support for Funny Boy as the journey to the Oscars continues.”

Telefilm Canada now plans to submit the feature in other categories such as Best Picture. "We were surprised that the film was not able to compete in the Academy’s International Feature category but then were equally surprised and more than thrilled that Telefilm decided to support the submission of the film for Best Picture and other categories," Mehta said in her statement.

The period film is set in the 1970s and 1980s and deals with the personal tribulations of Arjie, a Tamil youth, in the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war. Funny Boy stars Arush Nand, Brandon Ingram, Nimmi Harasgama, Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi, Seema Biswas and Shivantha Wijesinha.

Co-written by Mehta and Shyam, Funny Boy had its Canadian premiere on 4 December on the CBC television network. It had its digital premiere on Netflix in the US, the UK, New Zealand and Australia on 10 December. The film is being distributed by Ava DuVernay's Array Releasing.