China has chosen filmmaker Fang Li's Second World War documentary, The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, as its official entry for a Best International Feature Oscar. It is the first documentary film from China to compete in the Academy Awards since it started to send films at the event. It also continues the trend of Oscar entries from China stirring nationalistic sentiments.
The film, which opened the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival, follows a chapter from 1942 where the American navy torpedoed The Lisbon Maru, a Japanese transport ship with prisoners of war. It contributed to more than 800 fatalities from Japanese gunfire or drowning. Chinese fishermen saved around 400 British prisoners of war from Japanese troops.
Feng travelled across the UK, China, the US, Canada, and Japan to understand the tale of the vessel's sinking as well as the survivors' and fishermen's experiences. The filmmaker also made an effort to determine what is considered the Lisbon Maru shipwreck and documented the process.
China has earned two Best Interature Feature Oscar nominations: one in 1990 for the Gong Li starrer Ju Dou and another in 2002 for Hero.
