The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday, 3 December, which films in the Documentary Feature category that move forward in the race for the Oscars 2014. Among the 15 titles on the shortlist is Joshua Oppenheimer and Final Cut for Real's "The Act of Killing".
Only this week, "The Act of Killing" won the Gotham Independent Film Award, and the film is also in the run for this weekend's European Film Awards and the upcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards on 12 December – to name just a few of the accolades the film has received this Awards Season.
Five nominees from among the 15 titles will be selected and announced on 16 January to enter the final race for the Oscars 2014, to be presented on 2 March.
Third Danish film on Oscar shortlist
Already shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination are Anders Walter's "Helium" (Live Action Short), produced by Kim Magnusson for M&M Productions, and Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot's "Hollow Land" (Animated Short), produced by Marie Bro for Dansk Tegnefilm. Read more
Finally, Thomas Vinterberg's "The Hunt" starring Mads Mikkelsen is Denmark's candidate for the Oscar shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, to be announced late December or early January. Read more
The Act of Killing
When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gang¬sters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.