The BiH candidate for the Academy Awards in International Feature Film Category is Jasmila Žbanić's QUO VADIS, AIDA?, as decided by the Association of Filmmakers of BiH Committee consisted of director Srđan Vuletić, screenwriter Elma Tataragić, screenwriter Tina Šmalcelj, producer Zoran Galić, costume designer Lejla Hodžić, screenwriter Melina Alagić, editor Miralem Zubčević, editor Predrag Solomun, director of photography Almir Äikoli and director Ines Tanović.
Film QUO VADI,S AIDA? successfully premiered at this year's Venice Film Festival Competition Program followed by a screening in the Competition Program of Toronto Film Festival. The film will also be soon distributed in cinemas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The film is set in Bosnia, July 1995. Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people—rescue or death? Which move should she take?
The main cast of the film are Jasna Äuričić, Izudin Bajrović, Boris Isaković, Johan Heldenbergh, Raymond Thiry, Boris Ler, Dino Bajrović, Emir Hadžihafizbegović and Edita Malovčić. QUO VADIS, AIDA? was produced by Damir Ibrahimović and Jasmila Žbanić (Deblokada, BiH) and co-produced by Coop99 (Austria), Digital Cube (Romania) , N279 Productions (Netherlands), Razor Film (Germany), Extreme Emotions (Poland), Indie Prod (France) i Torden Film (Norway), and in partnershio with RTV of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkish TRT, TV ARTE/ ZDF i Austrian ORF.
Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been in charge of the candidacy of films for Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the past 20 years. As a reminder, Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina nominated NO MAN’S LAND by Danis Tanović in 2001 and the film won the Oscar in March 2002.
According to the rules of the AMPAS, producers of Bosnian and Herzegovinian feature length films that have been distributed in cinemas in Bosnia and Herzegovina between October 1st, 2019 and December 1st, 2020 for 7 consecutive days, have DCP or 35 mm print of the film and are predominantly made in the language of the country they are coming from could apply for the nomination. For more details about the rules for candidacy for this award please check: www.oscars.org. Oscar Awards are awarded by the American Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences AMPAS and are considered as the most prestigious awards in the film world, while the award ceremony is one of the shows with the highest ratings in the USA.
