Daily News
Culture
Slovenian Film Nominated for Oscar
01.05.2008
A film by up-and-coming Slovenian director Matevz Luzar has been nominated for a Student Oscar, conferred by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Luzar's film "Vucko" (Wolfie) about a lonely retired man looking for ways to meet new people has been nominated among films from Germany, Spain, Israel and the Czech Republic.
The five finalists were selected among 45 works from 29 countries, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on its website.
The winner will be announced on 7 June in Beverly Hills.
Luzar, who is also the movie's screenwriter, said that the nomination was a "great honour". "I never dared to hope that any of my films would ever compete for such an award as an Oscar," he said.
Marko Nabersnik, the head of the department of film and television directing at the Ljubljana Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, was also overjoyed by the news.
The Slovenian academy had been nominating films for the category for several years, but only managed to win a place among the top five finalists this year, Nabersnik said.
The movie depicts the story of a lonely pensioner Zdravko, whose daughter had stopped visiting him. He borrows a neighbour's dog to make contacts with people, but the dog runs away.
He then meets two Mormon missionaries in what appears as his lucky break for establishing new contacts, Luzar describes the plot.
The leading role is played by Evgen Car, who is accompanied by up-and-coming actor Klemen Slakonja and a host of acclaimed Slovenian movie and theatre actors - Mojca Fatur, Silva Cusin, Pia Zemljic and Polona Juh.