According to the Romanian Film Centre (CNC), the documentary
collective / colectiv, directed by
Alexander Nanau, is Romania`s official proposal for the OSCAR® 2021, for the “Best International Feature-Length Film”, previously called
“Best Foreign Film”. It is the first time that a documentary is Romania`s proposal for the American Film Academy Awards competition.
În plus,
the American distributors of the film, Magnolia Pictures and Participant, will also nominate the film for the "
Best Documentary" section. The participation of a film in two sections increases the chances of being nominated. Last year, for instance,
Honeyland, the much apooreciated documentary from the North Macedonia, made history as the first documentary simultaneously nominated for the "Best Documentary" and the "Best International Film”.
“It is a great honour for us to be invested with so much trust by the CNC commission. We are truly in the golden age of the documentary and the fact that these films begin to receive so much recognition on such a large scale is very encouraging. We are convinced that the “collective” story will reach many people and this will happen thanks to the efforts of our American partners along the long road that awaits us. It will be an atypical competition, in a complicated year, in which the eligibility standards have widened and the number of eligible documents has become huge. The competition is just beginning and we are moving forward with optimism and responsibility.” Alexander Nanau declared.
collective is also on the short list of the European Film Academy Awards and it can be voted for a nomination in the “European Documentary” category. The film received the Best Documentary Award from many international film festivals: “It's All True”- Brasil, “Hamptons International Film Festival”- SUA, “Docville”- Belgium, “DocAviv Film Festival”- Israel, “Zürich Film Festival”- Switzerland or “Luxembourg Film Festival”- Luxembourg.
The world premiere took place last year, during the Venice International Film Festival and the North-American one happened at the Toronto International Film Festival. collective was in the official selection of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival as well and it was in the selection of many other international film festivals, such as New Directors/New Films, IDFA, True/False, CPH DOX, San Francisco International Film Festival, Göteborg International Film Festival or Full Frame.
collective will be released in the US on November 20, 2020 by Magnolia Pictures and Participant, on the same day that the distributor Dogwoof will launch the film in UK and Ireland. Moreover, the film will be in the cinemas and on VOD in more countries this autumn, among which we mention France, Germany, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, which will offer it a bigger exposure, being even more in the attention of many members of the American Film Academy who live outside the US. The film will be available in 20 countries by means of HBO Europe as well. The film distribution in Romania will be made by Bad Unicorn.
collective is produced by Alexander Nanau Production, in co-production with Samsa Film Luxembourg and HBO Europe, with the support of the Romanian Film Centre, Luxemburg Film Fund and Sundance Documentary Fund, with the participation of the MDR Germany, RTS Switzerland, RSI - Switzerland and YES Docu - Israel.