Screenings of the film "Conversations on Serious Topics" begin in Los Angeles

The Lithuanian entry seeking an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category, the film "Conversations on Serious Topics" will finally be shown across the Atlantic . Between December 7 - 17, special screenings of the film will be held in Los Angeles and its surroundings.   The film will be screened in popular screening halls, cinemas, University of Philosophical Research .  These screenings make a part of the public relations campaign in the for the film.

In September, the Oscar committee, approved by The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, selected the film "Conversations on Serious Topics" by G. Beinoriūtė as Lithuanian candidate eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film. This year, the candidates were submitted by a record-breaking number of countries - 76.  Of these five nominees are selected in a two-stage process.  First of all, over the period of two months, the films are shown to the members of the General Committee.  The Committee consists of volunteer representatives from all 16 branches of the Academy - actors, directors, artists and others.  Members of the Committee shall evaluate each film on the scale from one to ten points. Six of the best scoring films along with other three selected by a special executive committee make the shortlist of nine films.

In the second stage, a couple of other committees spend three days viewing the nine shortlisted films before choosing the five official nominees.

Currently, the first selection stage is coming to an end.  More and more considerations are appearing in the public space regarding who will make the shortlist. Steve Pond, a longtime popular culture and entertainment analyst, editor of the website TheWrap.com awards and movie column, included "Conversations on Serious Topics" among the top ten films which, in his opinion, could shake up the race for the competing frontrunners. As obvious frontrunners he considers to be the already world famous films, such as the Iranian Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past”, “The Hunt” by  Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, “The Great Beauty” by Paolo Sorrentino from Italy, or Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster” from Hong Kong.

Presentation of the film "Conversations on Serious Topics" in the is partially funded by the Lithuanian Film Centre.