Funny Boy, the Deepa Mehta directed coming of age feature has failed to drop on Netflix. The feature film which was submitted by Canada as its Academy Award entry into the International Film Category, was supposed to have dropped on 10th December 2020 but almost 10 days have passed and there has still been no official statement from the streaming giant.
Funny Boy has also recently been rejected from its Academy Award entry into the International Film Category. For a film to be considered in the International category (according to the Academy), the amount of English spoken in the film should be less than 50 percent. Both Tamil and Sinhalese are spoken in the Funny Boy but English is spoken quite a bit in the film (more than the allowed amount to be eligible for the category).
Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director, Christa Dickenson said that they were disappointed by the decision but they are planning on re-submitting the picture under the Best Picture Category for the Oscar. Telefilm Canada also revealed that they had two pictures lined for the same category and if one got rejected (which the Funny Boy did), then they will present the other picture to the Academy to be considered for the International Oscar category nomination. The director, Deepa Mehta also expressed her delight when she found out that Telefilm decided to re-submit the picture for the Best Picture Category as well as other categories at the Academy Awards.
The Funny Boy is based on the 1994 novel of the same name which was written by Shyam Selvadurai. The film is about a coming of age story by Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young Tamil boy in Sri Lanka. He is exploring his sexuality and growing interest in boys (and men) against the backdrop of the increased political tensions between the Tamil and Sinhalese people before the breakout of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
The Funny Boy was supposed to be streaming on Netflix at this point, but it is still currently unavailable for viewing in India. For more news on the subject – follow us on twitter or here, on our website.
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