Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies is out of the Oscar race as The Academy announced shortlists across all the categories. Guneet Monga’s Anuja has found a place in live action shorts category. Apart from that, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, co-produced by United Kingdom and starring Shahana Goswami, has made it to the shortlist.

Laapataa Ladies was sent as India’s official entry to the Oscars for the International Feature Film category. 85 countries and regions were eligible for the category. The Academy made the announcement on its website and wrote, “Academy members from all branches were invited participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category”.

Other films that have been shortlisted in the category are, I’m Still Here (Brazil), Universal Language (Canada), Waves (Czech Republic), The Girl with the Needle (Denmark), Emilia Pérez (France), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), Touch (Iceland), Kneecap (Ireland), Vermiglio (Italy), Flow (Latvia), Armand (Norway), From Ground Zero (Palestine), Dahomey (Senegal), How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thailand), Santosh (United Kingdom).

Laapataa Ladies released in theatres on March 1 and stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam, and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma in pivotal roles.