Oscars 2027: India's Marathi Entry "Gondhal" Faces a Palme d'Or Winner, a Golden Lion Champion and Penélope Cruz in a Stacked Race

As submissions close on Oct. 1, 50-plus countries have sent their best. Here’s what India’s long shot is up against.

MUMBAI: The Oscar race for Best International Feature just got crowded, glamorous and a little nerve-racking for India. With final submissions due on Oct. 1, countries have locked in their picks, and the field includes the Palme d’Or winner, the Golden Lion champion and a Netflix awards juggernaut with Penélope Cruz.

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India’s pick is the Marathi-language drama Gondhal. It’s a rural, music-soaked story, and it is walking into a very tough room.

India’s Pick: Gondhal

The Film Federation of India announced Gondhal on Sept. 18 after a jury chaired by filmmaker P Sheshadri reviewed 33 films. The 99th Academy Awards will be held on March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles.

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Directed by Santosh Davakhar, the film unfolds over a single night in rural Maharashtra. A newlywed couple’s traditional wedding ritual becomes the setting where old customs, private desires and hidden fragility collide. The cast includes Ishita Deshmukh, Yogesh Sohoni and the always-reliable Kishor Kadam. Music legend Ilaiyaraaja composed the score.

The festival run is solid: Davakhar won the Silver Peacock for best director at IFFI’s 56th edition, and the film later picked up a Fipresci prize at the Bengaluru international film festival. It also won best director and best cinematographer at Pune’s festival, plus another best director award at the Third Eye Asian International Film Festival. Reports also describe it as another Marathi film heading to the Oscar race, which makes the selection a proud moment for regional cinema.

The Heavyweights Standing in the Way

If India wanted an easy year, it picked the wrong one. Look at who else is in the race:

Romania’s Fjord: Cristian Mungiu’s film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. It’s the kind of title that arrives with a reputation attached.
Denmark’s Woman Unknown: May el-Toukhy’s 1945 Copenhagen drama won the Golden Lion at Venice, and star Mathilde Arcel took the Coppa Volpi for best actress.
France’s Minotaur: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film took the Cannes Grand Prix and beat strong French contenders for the slot.
Spain’s La Bola Negra: The gossip magnet. It reportedly got a 16-minute standing ovation at Cannes, features Penélope Cruz as a cabaret dancer and a cameo by Glenn Close, and Netflix is giving it a 47-day US theatrical window, the longest in the streamer’s history.
Poland’s Fatherland: Paweł Pawlikowski won best director at Cannes for this black-and-white road-trip drama starring Sandra Hüller.
Germany’s Everytime: It won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.

And that’s before we get to the auteurs. South Korea sent Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, his first feature in eight years. Japan chose Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, and Hamaguchi already won this very Oscar with Drive My Car. Hungary picked Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend, with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Léa Seydoux. Hong Kong’s Sons of the Neon Night brings Takeshi Kaneshiro back to the screen alongside Sean Lau and Tony Leung Ka-fai.

The Underdogs Worth Watching

Not every strong story comes with a famous name. Nepal’s Elephants in the Fog won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. Singapore’s Anthony Chen finishes his trilogy with We Are All Strangers, the first Singaporean film in Berlin’s main competition. The Philippines sent Filipiñana, which won a special jury award at Sundance, and Iraq’s pick is a Kurdish sniper thriller shot in Mosul. Venezuela’s Death Has No Master stars Asia Argento. It’s a wide, global field with plenty of surprises.

How the Race Works From Here

Final submissions close on Oct. 1. The Academy will reveal a 15-film shortlist on Dec. 15, voted on by members across all branches who commit to watching all 15 titles. Nominations follow on Jan. 21.

There is also a new rule shaking things up. Any film that wins the top prize at one of six major festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Busan or Toronto) can now enter the race even without a national committee’s backing. That means a surprise festival winner could crash the party.

What It Means for Gondhal and India

Being India’s official entry is an honour, but it is only the first step. The film still has to win over Academy voters, and the shortlist is where most dreams end. India has a famously frustrating history here: Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan all earned nominations, but the country is still waiting for its first win.

For Gondhal, the challenge is visibility. Rivals arrive with big festival trophies and well-funded campaigns. A rural Marathi musical needs strong word of mouth, screenings that reach voters and perhaps a smart push on its music and its distinctly local story. Its biggest strength is also its biggest hook: it feels specific and rooted, and Academy voters often reward films that look like nothing else in the pile.

If it makes the shortlist, the benefits will be huge. Marathi cinema would get a global spotlight, Davakhar would become a name to watch, and Ilaiyaraaja’s score might reach audiences who have never heard it. Even if it doesn’t, the campaign itself could bring distribution deals and new audiences.

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What to Watch Next

Campaign moves: Will the makers announce screenings or a distributor for the US?
The Netflix factor: La Bola Negra looks like the film to beat on buzz alone.
Shortlist day: Dec. 15 will show whether Gondhal survives the first big cut.
Surprise entries: The new festival-winner rule could add a few unexpected names.

The bottom line is that this is one of the strongest international fields in years. India’s ticket is punched, and now comes the hard part.

Stay tuned to ultapaltakhabar.com for every Oscar update, shortlist news and awards-season gossip.

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