Austria is protesting the Academy’s refusal of their international film entry Joy.

As we reported earlier, Joy, written and directed by Sudabeh Mortezai, was the second international film disqualified from Oscars consideration. The first was Nigeria’s first-ever entry into the Academy Awards, Lionheart. With both films, the Academy ruled that there was too much English dialogue.

According to IndieWire, Austrian Films’ Executive Director Martin Schweighofer, producer Oliver Neumann and Mortezai sent a letter of protest to the Academy, stating that their math shows the film has over 53 percent of non-English languages, including Bini, German and Pidgin, which uses different grammar and can’t be understood by English speakers. This flies in the face of what the Academy’s six “testers” found. By their calculations, English makes up more than two-thirds of the film, which goes against the Academy’s qualification rules.

“It was a nasty surprise and quite a shock of course,” said Schweighofer to IndieWire. But the Academy is sticking to its ruling.

READ MORE:

‘Joy’: The Academy Just Disqualified Another International Oscar Entry For Its English Dialogue

Netflix’s ‘Lionheart’ From Genevieve Nnaji Has Been Disqualified As Nigeria’s Oscar Entry

Photo: Venice Film Festival

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