“8 Views of Lake Biwa” nominated for Oscar

The committee of the Estonian Film Institute selected Marko Raat’s feature film “8 Views of Lake Biwa” as a candidate for the Best International Film category of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

According to the commission, it is an author’s film with an interesting and original interpretation, where stories originating from Japanese culture in the Estonian interpretation form a complete, aesthetic and conceptual work of art.

The director of the film, Marko Raat, is happy with the commission’s decision: “A beautiful surprise and honor to Biwa’s film. A good opportunity for Americans to get a dose of European and Asian art at the same time through an Estonian film.”

According to Viola Salu, head of EFI’s production department, it is an extremely unique film that is poetic and of a high artistic level. “It is a pleasure to see that Estonian cinematography is becoming more and more versatile and that our films also speak to international festival audiences,” added Salu.

The director-screenwriter of the film is Marko Raat, the producers are Ivo Felt, Dora Nedeczky, Mark Lwoff and Misha Jaari, and the cinematographer is Sten-Johan Lill. The editor of the film is Jaak Ollino jr., the composer is Jakob Juhkam and the artist is Kristina Lõuk.

The filming of the film took place largely in Tartu County, near lake Peipsi, and the production of the work was also supported by the Tartu Film Fund.