Karishma Dev Dube’s Short Film ‘Bittu’ Out of 93rd Oscars Race

Indian filmmaker Karishma Dev Dube’s film ‘Bittu’ is officially out of the Oscars 2021 race. The film made it to the10 films shortlist last month under the ‘Best Live Action Short Film’ category in the 93rd Academy Awards, popularly known as Oscars. But, in an announcement made by actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas and husband Nick Jonas in London yesterday, it was revealed that ‘Bittu’ has failed to make it to the final 5 films at the Academy Awards nominations. And with that announcement, the dream of 1.3 billion Indians of bringing an Oscar home has been shattered, at least for this year.

‘Bittu’ is a 17-minute running short film set on the day of the tragic 2013 Bihar school meal poisoning where 23 children died. The film is presented by Indian Women Rising (IWR), a cinema collective that was recently formed by Ekta Kapoor, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Guneet Monga and Ruchika Kapoor, which also happens to be the first release under their banner. Upon its release last year, ‘Bittu’ was met with favourable reviews and accolades all around the globe, and has been screened in festivals like the BFI London Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortfest, Short Shorts Asia Film Festival. It also won an award at the prestigious Student Academy Awards last year.

Director Karishma Dev Dube is an alumnus of the New York University (NYU) specialising in Film Program. She also happens to be the niece of former Silchar MP and President of the All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) Sushmita Dev. The cinematographer of the film is her elder sister, Shreya Dev Dube, who has already worked with several renowned filmmakers till now.

The five nominees in the category that made it to the final list are ‘Feeling Through’, ‘The Letter Room’, ‘The Present’, ‘Two Distant Strangers’ and ‘White Eye’. Earlier, another Indian film, a Malayalam feature ‘Jallikattu’ was also shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards in the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category. But it eventually fell out of the race, leaving ‘Bittu’ as the only Indian contender in this year’s Oscars race until yesterday. The 93rd Academy Awards will be held on April 25 at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre and Union Station.