Kosovo admitted to Academy Awards

TIRANA, Feb. 6 – It was precisely the day when “Kthimi” (The Return) movie got its green light to compete in the Oscars, the Cinematographic Center of Kosovo (CCK) publicly announced the news that it got accepted at the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” that organizes the ceremony of the Oscar awards.
According to Arben Zharku, Head of the CCK Board, this Academy has positively responded to their request for membership.
“The Director of CCK, Fatos Berisha, has sent a letter asking for the integration of the CCK and they sent us a positive response saying that there is no problem for membership,” said Zharku.
Zharku explained that CCK procedures should be followed. According to him, they now need to fill out an application and send the names of the commission members that will make the selection of the movies that could be nominated for an Oscar in the category of foreign movies.
“CCK could have done this in the past years, but the CCK never filed a request for membership. Otherwise, you cannot compete with movies without being member of the Academy,” said Zharku.
He says that CCK this year will be able to select between 6 to 7 movies. According to him, three movies that were subsidized in 2010 will have their premiers this year. He also expressed his hope that even movies sponsored this year will be completed by November when there is the deadline for states to launch their application for the Oscars.
“In reality, Kosovo will have many movies this year. I am sure that there are some film directors who will succeed. So, Kosovo will come up with some serious applications,” said Zharku.