Puzzling Oscar news

REEL NE WS:It has been announced that As If I am Not There, Juanita Wilson's tale of the Bosnian war, will be Ireland's entry for the foreign language category in the upcoming Academy Awards. A few Oscar watchers might find the news puzzling.

Was there not a rule stating that such entries must be in an official language of the submitting country?

There was. But happily for Miss Wilson, it was withdrawn in 2006. Oddly, that dictum does still apply for American pictures. Could the US submit a film in Navajo?

We're getting off the subject. In Russia a scandal is brewing around the decision to submit Nikita Mikhalkov's awful Burnt by the Sun 2in the same race. Accusations of cronyism have been bandied about. Given that the film – a cack-handed war epic – is up against such hugely praised Russian films as Andrei Zvyagintsev's Elena, a winner at Cannes, and Alexander Sokurov's Faust, which took the top prize at Venice, the decision does, indeed, seem somewhat peculiar.