2020 Oscars: Romanian production shortlisted in the short film category

The Romanian production Cadoul de Crăciun (The Christmas Gift), written and directed by Bogdan Mureşanu, is among the ten films shortlisted in the Live Action Short Film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

The nominees for the 2020 Oscars will be selected from the shortlisted films.

This makes Bogdan Mureşanu the second Romanian director, after Cristian Mungiu, to make it on an Oscar awards shortlist, Agerpres reported.

Meanwhile, Romania’s proposal for the International Feature Film category, Corneliu Porumboiu’s La Gomera, was not shortlisted.

Recently, The Christmas Gift has been named the best European Short Film of 2019 by the European Film Academy.

The action of the film, which stars Adrian Văncică and Ioana Flora, takes place on December 20, 1989, a few days after Ceaușescu's bloody repression in Timișoara. A father’s quiet evening turns into an ordeal as he finds out that his little son has mailed a wish letter to Santa asking for his father’s desire to come true, namely to see Ceaușescu dead.

The film won at the beginning of this year the grand prize of the international competition of Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. It also won the Romanian Film Days prize in the short film section at the 2018 edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), and the public’s choice award at the Żubroffka Short Film International Festival in Białystok.

The films shortlisted for the 2020 Oscars are listed here.

The Oscar nominees will be announced on January 13, while the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for February 9.

(Photo:The Christmas Gift/Cadoul de Craciun Facebook Page)