On Wednesday, the Malayalam film 2018 – Everyone is a Hero was selected as India's official entry to the 96th Academy Awards under the Best International Feature category. 

2018 – Everyone is a Hero has been chosen from 22 films that made it to the final round of contention. The shortlisted films comprised a fair representation of the Tamil language films that were released in the year. The Tamil films shortlisted include Viduthalai Part 1, Maamannan, Vaathi and August 16, 1947. Apart from Tamil, the final list consists of 11 Hindi language films, 4 Telugu films and 2 Marathi films. Interestingly, 2018 was the only Malayalam film in the final list. 

India has never won this prestigious award, and only Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan made it to the nomination list.

It is to be noted that as many as 10 films were earlier picked for the Oscars as the nation's official entry from Tamil over the years, including Deiva Magan, Nayakan, Anjali, Thevar Magan, Kuruthipunal, Indian, Jeans, Hey Ram, Visaranai, and Koozhangal.