Auteur Min Bahadur Bham’s debut feature Kalo Pothi will be representing Nepal at the 89th Academy Awards, the Best Foreign Language Film Selection Committee, Nepal, announced issuing a press release on Tuesday. The film will compete under Best Foreign Language Film category at the Awards.

“Judging from the technical aspects, the presentation of the story, the emotional analysis of the characters, we have announced that the film Kalo Pothi will represent Nepal at the Academy Awards,” the statement states. “Our team is very excited at the news. Getting to compete

against top

films from Europe and America is exciting and is an honour,” said director Bham, speaking to the Post. “It will not only help us to promote the film but also to draw light to the theme the film revolves around.”

To seal its place at the coveted event, Kalo Pothi topped films Pashupati Prasad and Ko Aafno-the films that had made it to the final rounds of the selection process.

Set in a rural village in Mugu, Kalo Pothi, released last June, tells the story of two village boys’ quest to search for a missing hen, in backdrop of the 10-year-long maoist insurgency.  The film that won rave reviews from audience and critics alike here in Nepal also participated in several film festivals around the world, and won the Critics’ Weeks Award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Award’s organiser, will announce the name of films shortlisted

for the Best Foreign-language

Film category on January 17; out of which five final nominees will

compete for the Award.

The 89th Oscars ceremony is slated to be held on February 26, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood,

Los Angeles.