Chukhrai voluntarily resigned as head of the Oscar committee due to Mikhalkov’s voluntarism

In response to the statements of the chairman of the Union of Cinematographers about the refusal to nominate Russian films for the Academy Award, he wrote an appeal to colleagues

Nikita Mikhalkov felt himself the master of the entire Russian cinema world and made statements about Russia’s refusal to participate in the Oscar race, without even informing the head of the chairman of the Russian committee, film director Pavel Chukhrai, who, in protest, withdrew his recently received powers.

The Oscars will take place for the 95th time on March 12, 2023 in Los Angeles. All countries have begun nominating their potential applicants. In the Russian long list – 122 paintings. Among them are “Off-season” by Alexander Khant, which is successfully traveling around Europe in these troubled days in a unique author’s tour, “December” by Klim Shipenko about Yesenin’s last days, “Nuuccia” by Vladimir Munkuev filmed in Yakutia, “The Heart of Parma” by Anton Megerdichev based on the novel Alexei Ivanov, “First Oscar” by Sergei Mokritsky.

Pavel Chukhrai, the head of the Russian Oscar committee, learned that Russia would not nominate its contenders for the American Film Academy awards from a report by a news agency that quoted another statement from the restless Mikhalkov. on the evening of December 26th. It was reported that the Presidium of the Russian Film Academy made such a decision. It was reported that not everyone agrees with this decision. For example, Andrei Konchalovsky and Alexei Uchitel hold the opposite point of view. But the position of Mikhalkov triumphed, considering it pointless to represent his interests in a country that denies the existence of Russia. Note that in the United States not a word was said about the refusal to participate in Russian films. That is, Mikhalkov worked ahead of the curve. What is it to him? “Oscar” has, the second will never get.

Recall that in May, Mikhalkov announced his intention to create a Eurasian Film Academy and establish a kind of Eurasian Oscar under the bold name Diamond Butterfly. The issue price is 3-5 million dollars. Mikhalkov said this during the first Eurasian Economic Forum in Bishkek. Thus, he decided to protect the Eurasian civilization from a possible threat. Then colleagues laughed at the greed of the head of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, who once again wanted to receive exorbitant money from the state for an unnecessary undertaking. Let us recall his fiasco in the field of organizing a fast food chain, when, in company with his brother Andrei Konchalovsky, he claimed exorbitant subsidies.

At night, the chairman of the Russian Oscar Committee, Pavel Chukhrai, appointed to this post after the death of Vladimir Menshov, voluntarily resigned. He wrote a letter about this to his colleagues, members of the Oscar commission. It says that in the evening he learned from a TASS correspondent that the leadership of the Russian Film Academy had unilaterally decided not to nominate a Russian film for an Oscar nomination and outlined his view of the situation. The letter reads: “This, in my opinion, is an unlawful decision passed over the head of the Oscars committee. The members of our independent organization were not only not consulted, they did not even consider it necessary to notify us of such a decision. This is offensive and illegal. I want to notify you that in protest I am resigning from my duties as chairman and resigning from this organization.”

Recall that the first winner of the “Oscar” was in 1942 the Soviet film “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow” by Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin in the nomination “Best Documentary”. It is this event that is dedicated to the feature film by Sergei Mokritsky “The First Oscar”, released on screens in 2022. “The best film in a foreign language” was in 1969 “War and Peace” by Sergei Bondarchuk, and in 1981 -. “Moscow does not believe in tears” by Vladimir Menshov. In 1995, Mikhalkov himself received an Oscar for Burnt by the Sun. In 2000, “The Old Man and the Sea” by Alexander Petrov won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.