Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

India chose one film to send to the Oscars. The name of the film is Gondhal.

The film is in Marathi. Marathi is a language in India. Many people in Maharashtra speak it.

The story happens in one night. It happens in a village. A man and a woman are newly married.

There were 33 films. The group chose only one. The Oscars will be in March 2027.

film

A moving picture story that you watch on a screen.

language

The words that people of one place use to speak.

village

A very small town in the countryside.

night

The dark time when the sun is not in the sky.

married

Joined as husband and wife.

choose

To pick one thing from many things.

story

Something that happens, told in words or pictures.

award

A prize you get for doing something very well.

Level 2 — Elementary

The Film Federation of India announced on Friday that the Marathi film Gondhal will be the country's official entry for the Best International Feature category at the 99th Academy Awards. A jury looked at 33 films from across India before making its choice.

Gondhal was written and directed by Santosh Davakhar. The story is set in rural Maharashtra and takes place over a single night, during a traditional ritual held for a couple who have just been married. A gondhal is a real ceremony, with music and singing, performed in honour of a family goddess.

This is only the fourth time a Marathi film has been chosen. The earlier ones were Shwaas in 2005, Harishchandrachi Factory in 2009 and Court in 2015. India makes films in many languages, so the competition for this one place is intense every year.

Davakhar is not new to prizes. He won the Silver Peacock for Best Director at the 56th International Film Festival of India. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held on 14 March 2027.

entry

Something that is put forward to compete in a contest.

category

A group of similar things, such as a class of awards.

jury

A group of people chosen to judge a competition.

director

The person who controls how a film is made.

rural

Belonging to the countryside rather than a city.

ritual

A ceremony with actions done in a fixed order.

goddess

A female god.

ceremony

A formal event held to mark an important occasion.

Level 3 — Intermediate

Every year the Film Federation of India faces an unusual problem: it must send exactly one film to the Academy Awards from a country that produces work in more than twenty languages. On Friday the jury announced its answer for the 99th ceremony. Gondhal, a Marathi thriller written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, was selected from a shortlist of 33 titles as India's official entry for Best International Feature.

The film's structure is tightly disciplined. The entire narrative unfolds across one night in a village in rural Maharashtra, during the performance of a gondhal, a devotional ritual of song and invocation held in honour of a family deity and commonly staged after a wedding. Setting a thriller inside a ceremony that a community already knows by heart allows the tension to come from what the characters conceal rather than from what the audience is shown.

The choice carries some weight for Marathi cinema, which has produced only three previous Indian entries in the category. Shwaas went forward in 2005, Harishchandrachi Factory in 2009 and Chaitanya Tamhane's Court in 2015. Given the commercial dominance of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu production, a Marathi selection tends to be read as a judgement about craft rather than about box office reach.

Davakhar arrives with recognition already behind him, having taken the Silver Peacock for Best Director at the 56th International Film Festival of India. Selection, however, is only the first hurdle. The entry must now compete for a place on the Academy's shortlist before nominations are announced, and India has not won in this category. The ceremony is scheduled for 14 March 2027.

shortlist

A reduced list of candidates still being considered.

narrative

The story told by a book, film or other work.

devotional

Connected with religious worship or devotion.

invocation

A call or prayer addressed to a god or spirit.

deity

A god or goddess.

conceal

To hide something so it cannot be seen or known.

dominance

The state of being the strongest or most influential.

hurdle

An obstacle that must be overcome to make progress.

Level 4 — Advanced

The Academy's Best International Feature category imposes a peculiar discipline on submitting nations: one country, one film, regardless of how many distinct cinematic traditions that country contains. For India the rule is close to absurd, since the industry produces at scale in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada and Marathi, among others, with little overlap in audience or aesthetic. On Friday the Film Federation of India resolved the annual dilemma by selecting Gondhal, a Marathi thriller written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, from a field of 33 submissions for the 99th Academy Awards.

Formally, the film is an exercise in constraint. Its action is confined to a single night in a village in rural Maharashtra and to the duration of a gondhal, the devotional performance of song and invocation traditionally offered to a household deity, frequently in the aftermath of a marriage. The choice of container is doing considerable work. A ritual is by definition a sequence whose outcome everyone present already knows, which means any deviation registers immediately, and it supplies an unforced reason for a community to remain in one place until dawn. Suspense generated this way depends on concealment rather than spectacle.

Institutionally, the selection reads as a statement of preference. Marathi cinema has supplied only three previous Indian entries in more than half a century of submissions: Shwaas in 2005, Harishchandrachi Factory in 2009 and Chaitanya Tamhane's Court in 2015, the last of which travelled unusually well on the festival circuit. Against the commercial gravity of the larger language industries, a Marathi choice tends to be understood as the jury privileging formal control over box office magnitude, a preference that has historically correlated with how such films are received abroad without ever converting into a win.

Davakhar is not an unknown quantity, having collected the Silver Peacock for Best Director at the 56th International Film Festival of India, and that prior circulation may matter more than it appears. Submission secures nothing on its own. The entry must survive the Academy's shortlisting round before nominations are declared, a stage at which Indian films have repeatedly stalled, and India has never taken the award. The ceremony falls on 14 March 2027, leaving a long campaign season in which distribution, subtitling and festival visibility will determine whether the film is seen widely enough to be judged at all.

aesthetic

A particular style or set of artistic principles.

dilemma

A difficult choice between options that are each unsatisfactory.

constraint

A limitation that restricts what can be done.

deviation

A departure from an expected course or standard.

spectacle

A visually striking display staged for an audience.

circuit