SA angle on 2015 Oscars
Via Poland, via Cape Town, we’re getting another Academy look-in
FUGARD Theatre owner Eric Abraham will fly the flag for South Africa at the Oscars next month, after the film he co-produced was nominated in two categories – Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film.
If his Polish movie Ida wins in Los Angeles on February 22, it will be the second film to which the South African-born film and theatre producer has been linked to win the highlycontested Foreign Language category.
Abraham also produced the Czech film Kolya, which won a 1996 Academy Award and Golden Globes Award.
Ida was also nominated for a Golden Globe, and is up for two Baftas on February 8 – Best Cinematography and Best Film not in the English Language.
Abraham also produced the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Danny the Champion of the World.
Directed by Polish-bor n Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida is a black and white film that tells the story of 18-year-old Anna in 1962 Poland. She is a teenager preparing to be a nun at the convent in which she grew up, until a meeting with an aunt reveals that she is in fact Jewish, and that her real name is Ida.
Following the path of her family history, she faces a choice between sisterhood and her Jewish identity.
Abraham said that, “It’s an enormous accolade from one’s peers in the film community, but even more importantly, it will persuade distributors to put greater effort into promoting Ida and therefore more people will have a chance to see it.”
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta), and the European and Czech Film Academies. Abraham commissioned the screenplay from Pawlikowski six years ago.
Forty percent of the project was financed through his companies Portobello Pictures Lon- don, Phoenix Film (Denmark) and Portobello Film Sales (Denmark).
The rest was raised from European media agencies.
Abraham said that Ida had been seen by 500 000 people in France. “It’s the second-highest grossing foreign language film in the US in 2014, and highest grossing Polish film in the UK of all time.”
“Ida is about many things. Cross-generational holocaust trauma, the loss of family, home, identity and even memory.” Abraham, whose father is a Hungarian Jew, found moving parallels between the script and the story of his own family.
Ida has yet to be theatrically released in South Africa.