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EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed filmmaker Pawo Choyning Dorji, who this year brought Bhutan its first-ever International Feature Oscar nom with Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, for representation.

Japan has won the award, and the first time since 2008.It beat out Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Denmark’s “Flee” and Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.”———For more of AP’s Oscar coverage visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards

LOS ANGELES -- “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom," became the unlikeliest of Oscar contenders when it was nominated this year for best international film. The story of a young man in Bhutan who goes on an unexpected and life-changing journey to become a teacher in the nation's remote mountains is the first feature from director Pawo Choyning Dorji and the first film in the history of the small Himalayan country to be nominated.Dorji and his wife, Taiwanese actor and producer Stephanie Lai, arrived in Los Angeles a few weeks before Sunday's Academy Awards along with their 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.He shared some of their experiences with The Associated Press in this first-person account.———A “BORING YAK”As I worked over the past two years on “Lunana, A Yak in the Classroom,” my kids were subjected to a lot of talk about it.

Clayton Davis The “Cinderella” story for “Drive My Car” has been one of the award season’s most enlightening. The Japanese submission captured a nom for best international feature, best picture, director and adapted screenplay.

When the Oscar nominations dropped on February 8, one of the most surprising and celebrated inclusions was the Bhutanese feature Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom, only the second ever movie submitted by the small Asian nation.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: The Nominees, this past weekend’s showcase of 24 Oscar-nominated films and their stars, creatives and craftspeople talking about their roads to the Academy Awards.

An Oscar nominee for Best International Feature, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom marks a first for the country of Bhutan, which has only ever submitted two films for consideration (and actually entered Lunana two years in a row following its earlier disqualification on a technicality). Filmmaker Pawo Choyning Dorji and star Sherab Dorji joined us for Contenders Film: The Nominees to discuss the making of the movie, a charming story of a teacher who is reluctantly transferred to a remote village and ends up learning quite a bit throughout his journey.

Contenders Film: The Nominees, a one-stop-shop experience featuring a smörgåsbord of Oscar-nominated talent discussing their top-tier projects, kicks off Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. PT as a virtual event, the latest in Deadline’s rapidly expanding Contenders series. Stars, creatives and craftspeople behind 24 films will take part in moderated panels discussing the roads that led them to the doorstep of the Academy Awards.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has set a content deal with MX Player, India’s largest AVOD service, which also has a strong reach across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan. The partnership kicks off with Simon Allen‘s “The Watch,” a series inspired by the characters in Terry Pratchett’s bestselling “Discworld” novels, which follows an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, who are forced to find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process; and “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio‘s “Critical,” set in a major trauma center that only deals with the most serious cases, following an emergency medical team that battles through the vital first hour of care to save lives that hang in balance.

Drive My Car,” a three-hour Japanese film; “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,” only the second Oscar submission (and first nom) from Bhutan; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Hand of God,” the Italian helmer’s second visit to the Academy Awards; Denmark’s “Flee,” an animated tale of an Afghan refugee; and Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World.”Three of the films even broke out of the international film race, with “Drive My Car” drawing noms for best pic, adapted screenplay and director; “Flee” also earned nominations for animation and doc, while “The Worst Person in the World” nabbed a nom in original screenplay.Joachim Trier, who directed “Worst Person in the World” says of the noms: “The Academy wants a broader spectrum of people from across the world looking at films and voting. It’s a more international community.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentRolling off its Oscar nomination in the international feature category, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Bhutanese feature debut “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom” has been sold by Films Boutique in further territories. Bhutan’s first Oscar entry in 23 years, “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom” follows a young teacher who dreams of emigrating to Australia to become a singer and instead finds himself assigned to a school in the most remote village in Northern Bhutan, where he unexpectedly bonds with local children and finds happiness.Berlin-based company Films Boutique has already sold the movie in most major markets including North America with Samuel Goldwyn Films and recently closed deals with leading distributors in Spain (A Contracorriente), Benelux (September Films) and Portugal (Alambique).

After whittling down from 93 country submissions to a shortlist of 15, the Oscars’ Best International Feature category has its final five nominees, welcoming some familiar faces, and for the first time, an entirely new entrant.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Neon film Flee made history this morning, as it became the first ever to score a trifecta of Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film.

Naman Ramachandran Go language-specific, go cheap and go hyper-local to reap success appears to be the motto of a range of streamers operating across South Asia.With countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, South Asia is a vast region populated by 1.9 billion people speaking a welter of languages. It is no secret that people in the region prefer consuming content in their own tongues.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired exclusive South Asia media rights for the 2022 Asian Games taking place later this year at Hangzhou, China. SPN will have the rights to broadcast the games across its sports channels in India and the subcontinent including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives, and on streamer SonyLIV through Sept. 2023.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBhutan’s first Oscar entry in 23 years, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s feature debut “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom” is handled by Samuel Goldwyn Films in North America. The movie follows a young teacher from Bhutan’s capital who dreams of emigrating to Australia to become a singer and instead finds himself assigned to a school in the most remote village in Northern Bhutan, where he unexpectedly bonds with local children and finds happiness.What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar? The shortlisting has meant so much because it’s a historic moment for our little Himalayan Kingdom.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBhutan’s first Oscar entry in 23 years, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s feature debut “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” had an unusual journey before landing on the shortlist for Oscar international film.The lushly lensed feature, with a plot revolving around the spiritual coming of age of a young man on a quest to find happiness far from home, was made on solar batteries and shot for three months in one of world’s most isolated human settlements with first-time actors and an amateur crew.“It’s a very surreal journey, and for me it really validates the power of art and filmmaking, that if you put your heart into it, and share a story with the world, it can go from the remotest school in the world, all the way to the most prestigious stages of the world,” says Dorji. He is an author and photographer from Bhutan whose work has been published in magazines such as Life, Esquire and the Wall Street Journal.

A specialty market dotted by holdovers as Oscar nods approach and gripped by Sundance fever debuts a compelling handful of new openers from Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Introduction to Bhutan’s first ever entrant on the Academy Awards International feature shortlist, to a Ukrainian coming of age story and a Queen Latifa-starrring family film Tiger Rising based on the bestselling Kate DiCamillo book.

Clayton Davis The Oscars have announced that 276 feature films are eligible for this year’s Academy Awards, with nomination voting set to begin Thursday, Jan. 27 until Tuesday, Feb.

Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) is a government-contracted teacher who doesn’t want to teach in Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Oscar-shortlisted debut film Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom. It was submitted for consideration for last year’s Academy Award for International Feature, but was not accepted because the South Asian nation hadn’t submitted a film since it’s lone entry in 1999. Beating the odds, Dorji’s film made the International Feature shortlist — making Bhutan one of three countries to make the cut for the first time, along with Kosovo and Panama.

EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Plaza Catedral, the Oscar-shortlisted film from writer-director Abner Benaim, which looks to represent Panama at the 94th Academy Awards, in the category of Best International Feature. The company’s release plan has not yet been disclosed.

Belgium, “Playground”Bhutan, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”Denmark, “Flee”Finland, “Compartment No.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today unveiled its shortlist of 15 films that will advance to the next stage of voting in the International Feature Film category at the Oscars. Notable among omissions is Julia Ducournau’s Titane, the entry from France which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or — becoming only the second movie directed by a woman to scoop that prize.

Richard Kuipers The trusty old tale of a city slicker teacher being posted to a school in the sticks is given a fresh coat of paint in the delightful Bhutanese comic drama “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.” Gloriously filmed on staggeringly beautiful locations around the most remote school on Earth and wonderfully performed by a cast comprised almost exclusively of first-time actors, this big-hearted crowd-pleaser marks a bright debut for writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji.

Naman Ramachandran Starz-backed streamer Lionsgate Play has revealed ambitious expansion plans in Southeast Asia, local commissions in India and a 60-strong English-language programming slate.In Asia, the service is currently available in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.“We’re certainly looking to go out to all South Asian territories, which is Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives: these are some of the territories that we’re going to go immediately,” Amit Dhanuka, executive VP at Lionsgate

Dennis Harvey Film CriticTold he’s been cursed and will die within a week, a Kathmandu man desperately seeks the elusive spirit that might save him in “Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache.” Though playing upon Tibetan Buddhist concepts, this latest film from Bhutan-born writer-director Khyentse Norbu (“The Cup,” “Travellers and Magicians”) doesn’t use traditional religious mythology as a springboard for horror, as in recent “The Vigil” or any number of exorcism-related titles.

Naman Ramachandran A new documentary from Bhutan will share the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom’s unique philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) with the world.Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuk came up with the phrase in 1972 when he said that GNH is more important than Gross Domestic Product.

When you think of monks living their lives in the mountains in Asia, you don’t necessarily imagine them on social media and staring at smartphones. But in “Sing Me A Song,” not only do we meet the monks of the rural monastery in Bhutan, but we also see how one teen Buddhist monk, Peyangki, is not only using social media but also finding love.

Bhutan is a mountain kingdom in the Eastern Himalayas

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe Czech Film and Television Academy has selected Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” to be its official entry in the International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards.Its decision follows recent submissions by Singapore, Kosovo and Georgia.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentKosovo has selected Visar Morina’s “Exil” as its official entry in the International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards. It follows submissions by Bhutan, Taiwan, Ukraine, Bosnia, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Luxembourg, Poland and Switzerland.“Exil” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and also screened at the Berlinale as part of the Panorama section.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPawo Choyning Dorji’s directorial debut “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” has been selected to represent Bhutan in the international feature race at the Oscars.“Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom” is the second Oscar entry from Bhutan, a landlocked country in South Asia.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPawo Choyning Dorji’s directorial debut “Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom” has been selected to represent Bhutan in the International feature race at the Oscars. “Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom” is the second Oscar entry from Buthan, a landlocked country in South Asia, ever.

King Jigme Khesar and Queen Jetsun of Bhutan have just announced the official name of their second child.

King Jigme Khesar and Queen Jetsun of Bhutan have shared the first images of their new royal baby.

Lucy Mecklenburgh and Ryan Thomas have only been offering partial glimpses of their little tot Roman since he arrived two-weeks ago.