Bulgaria's 'Eastern Plays' Fails to Make Cut for Oscar

"Eastern Plays", the Bulgarian foreign language Oscar competitor, has not made it for the final shortlist.

The category's nine-film shortlist was released on Thursday from the initial list of 65 films that were announced as eligible.The nine films on the Academy's shortlist hail from Algeria, Denmark, Canada, Greece, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and Sweden.The shortlist will now be winnowed down to five nominees, to be announced with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday.

Eastern Plays", which is the debut feature film of director Kamen Kalev, was chosen as the Bulgarian competitor for an Oscar for international film after it achieved a sweeping success not only in Bulgaria but also abroad in the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010.

"Eastern Plays" won the award for best movie for 2009 of the Bulgarian Film Academy. The movie director, Kamen Kalev, was also awarded for best director and for a debut in feature film.

This is one of the many awards "Eastern Plays" has won in Bulgaria, as well as in international film festivals, including the Sofia, Bratislava, Warsaw and Las Palmas International Film Festivals.

The movie was the first Bulgarian movie in the last 20 years to be selected at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009.

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