Malayalam Film '2018' is India's official entry to Oscars 2024

Of the total 22 films considered including Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani and the Kerala Story for the Oscars, the panel has chosen the Malayalam film to bag a nomination under the foreign language category.

The 16-member committee was led by noted filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli.

Directed by Jude Anthany Joseph, the film stars Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Narain, and Lal. 2018 was released in May this year and is both a critical and box office hit – it is the highest-earning Malayalam film of all time and one of Indian cinema's top earners this year.

Lead actor Tovino Thomas expressed happiness by taking to his X page over his film getting selected for the Oscars' official entry.

Talking to reporters here, Girish said '2018-Everyone is a Hero' has expressed the idea that humanity is important in the backdrop of a natural disaster in Kerala. He felt that this idea was applicable to the entire world.

FFI President Ravi Kottarakara said: "Mother Earth is crying and pleading with us not to abuse her. We are seeing the ill impacts of climate change everywhere across the world."

"Thousands of lives and thousands of crores of money were lost in natural disasters like the 2015 Chennai floods, 2018 Kerala floods, 2023 disaster in Himachal, Uttarakhand and the calamity in Libya," he pointed out.

"We need to learn lessons from these and immediately take necessary action to protect the world. '2018 - Everyone is a Hero' is a great film that talks about this and more," he said.

The 22 films considered for Oscar's official entry included: Tamil-4 (Viduthalai Part 1, Maamannan, Vaathi, August 16, 1947); Telugu-4 (Balagam, Dasara, Sir, Virupaksha); Malayalam-1(2018- Everyone is a Hero); Hindi-11 (The Kerala Story, 12th Fail, Zwigato, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, The Storyteller, Music School, Mrs.Chatterjee Vs Norway, Ghoomer, Gadar-2, The Vaccine War, Ab Toh Sab Bhagwan Bharose) and Marathi-2 (Vaalvi, Baaplyok).