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In a scathing letter partially published by
TASS news agency, Pavel Chukhrai, whose film "The Thief" was
nominated for an Oscar in 1997, wrote that the country's Film
Academy had unilaterally decided not to a nominate a film
without consulting him.
Slamming the decision as "illegal", Chukhrai said he was
standing down. Another director from the commission also
resigned in protest, he said.
Russia's Film Academy did not say why it was not submitting a
film to the Oscars. In its statement it pointed out, however,
that Chukhrai was its chairman, without providing further
detail.
Russia's Oscars commission decides which film to put forward for
the prestigious Best International Feature Film award,
previously known as Best Foreign Language Film.
Russia last won the award in 1994 with "Burnt by the Sun", about
a Red Army officer and his wife struck by the return of an
ex-lover during Stalin's purge in 1936.
The last two Russian movies nominated for Best International
Feature Film were "Leviathan" and "Loveless", in 2014 and 2017,
by Andrey Zviaginstev, a rare director who addresses political
issues in his films.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber. Writing by Caleb Davis.
Editing by Nick Macfie)
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