The Marathi film ‘Gondhal’ has been selected as India’s official entry to compete at the 99th Academy Awards, in the Best International Feature Film category. The Film Federation of India (FFI) announced the selection on Friday, with the Santosh Davakhar-directed film chosen from a list of 33 submissions.Written and directed by Davakhar, ‘Gondhal’ is set in rural Maharashtra and unfolds over a night centred around the traditional Gondhal ritual and a newly married couple. The film stars Ishita Deshmukh, Kishor Kadam, Yogesh Sohani, Nishad Bhoir and Anuj Prabhu, among others, with veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja scoring the music.P Sheshadri, chairperson of the FFI selection committee, said at a press conference, “This year we’ve had four Marathi films, 14 Hindi films, and others films, all the films were good. It’s a happy moment for Indian cinema, for Marathi cinema. This time the official entry is ‘Gondhal’.”He added, “We’ve watched 33 films in last ten days of different languages. There were many other good films for which we were debating about. ‘Angh’ and ‘Ikkis’ were in top three list apart from ‘Gondhal’.”
What is ‘Gondhal’ about?
Set against the backdrop of the traditional midnight Gondhal ritual in rural Maharashtra, the film follows Suman, a woman trapped in an oppressive marriage, who plots a murder and an escape with her forbidden lover. The story explores themes of faith, tradition, desire, deception and fate.The selection marks the fourth time a Marathi film has been chosen to represent India at the Oscars. Earlier Marathi entries were ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ (2009), ‘Shwaas’ (2005) and ‘Court’ (2015).
‘Gondhal’ joins an international Oscar race
India’s entry joins a long list of films submitted for the 2027 International Feature Film race. Among the titles announced so far are Romania’s ‘Fjord’, France’s ‘Minotaur’, Poland’s ‘Fatherland’, Germany’s ‘Everytime’, Spain’s ‘La Bola Negra’, Chile’s ‘The Meltdown’ and South Korea’s ‘Possible Love’. The submission process is ongoing, with countries required to submit their entries to the Academy by September 30.
List of Best International Feature Film submissions:
Armenia: ‘In The Land Of Arto’Australia: ‘First Light’Austria: ‘Rose’Belgium: ‘Coward’Bolivia: ‘The Condor Daughter’Brazil: ‘Gugu’s World’Bulgaria: ‘The Dreamed Adventure’Cambodia: ‘Becoming Human’Canada: ‘Nina Roza’Chad: ‘Soumsoum, The Night Of The Stars’Chile: ‘The Meltdown’Colombia: ‘Rains Over Babel’Croatia: ‘God Will Not Help’Cyprus: ‘Hold Onto Me’Czech Republic: ‘If Pigeons Turned To Gold’Dominican Republic: ‘Melodrama’Ecuador: ‘The Ivy’Estonia: ‘Our Erika’Finland: ‘The Squirrel’France – ‘Minotaur’Georgia: ‘Guria’Germany: ‘Everytime’Greece – ‘Broken Vein’Hungary: ‘Silent Friend’Iceland: ‘The Ground Beneath Our Feet’India: ‘Gondhal’Indonesia: ‘Four Seasons in Java’Iraq: ‘No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman’Ireland: ‘Aontas’Israel: ‘Tell Me Everything’Japan: ‘All Of A Sudden’Kosovo: ‘Dua’Latvia: ‘Ulya’Lithuania: ‘How To Divorce During The War’Mexico: ‘On The Road’Morocco: ‘Strawberries’Nepal: ‘Elephants In The Fog’Netherlands: ‘Paikar’North Macedonia: ‘17’Norway: ‘Growth Of The Soil’Paraguay: ‘Narciso’Palestine: ‘Citizen Osama’Philippines: ‘Filipiñana’Poland: ‘Fatherland’Portugal: ‘The Scent of Things Remembered’Romania: ‘Fjord’Singapore: ‘We Are All Strangers’Slovakia: ‘Flood’South Korea: ‘Possible Love’Spain: ‘La Bola Negra’Sweden: ‘Adult Supervision’Switzerland: ‘Who Is Still Alive’Thailand: ‘9 Temples To Heaven’Türkiye: ‘Like A Limbless Tree’Ukraine: ‘Traces’Uruguay: ‘A Loose End’Luxembourg: ‘Child’
Oscars 2027 announce new rules to Best International Feature Film category
This year’s race also comes with a significant change to the Academy’s rules. For the first time, a non-English-language film can qualify for International Feature Film consideration through two routes: it can be selected as a country’s official entry, as in previous years, or it can qualify by winning a designated top prize at one of six Academy-recognised international film festivals. The qualifying festival awards are the Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlin, the Busan Award for Best Film at Busan, the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the Platform Award at Toronto and the Golden Lion at Venice.Under the new system, a film that wins one of these qualifying prizes does not require backing from its country’s national selection committee.The Academy has also changed the way the award is credited: the film itself will be listed as the nominee rather than the country or region, with the director accepting the award on behalf of the film’s creative team.
India’s Oscar run
Last year, India selected Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ as its official Oscar entry, the film made the shortlist, but did not score a nomination.India has never won the International Feature Film Oscar. Three Indian films – ‘Mother India’, ‘Salaam Bombay’ and ‘Lagaan’ – have received nominations in the category, while Deepa Mehta’s Water, which was submitted by Canada, also earned a nomination.The 33 films considered by the FFI committee reportedly included Yami Gautam-starrer ‘Haq’, Aditya Dhar’s ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, ‘Hanuman Ansh’, Sunny Deol’s ‘Border 2’, Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’, Ram Charan-starrer ‘Peddi’ and Farhan Akhtar’s ‘120 Bahadur’.
Oscars 2027 timeline
The deadline for International Feature Film submissions is September 30, 2026. The Academy is scheduled to announce the Oscars shortlists on December 15, 2026, followed by the nominations on January 21, 2027. The 99th Academy Awards will be held on March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
