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Armenian film “Spitak” was not included in the Oscars 2019 foreign-language feature shortlist.

The list of shortlisted films is published on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.  For the 2019 Oscars, 87 countries submitted eligible entries. The Los Angeles-based Academy members from all branches screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 10. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constituted the shortlist.

On the shortlist are Cannes Best Director Pawel Pawlikowski’s follow-up to Oscar-winner “Ida,” the bittersweet period romance “Cold War”, Hirozaku Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” — which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or and a Magnolia deal — and Lebanese Nadine Labaki’s crowdpleaser “Capernaum” (Sony Pictures Classics), which scored the Jury Prize in Cannes.

To note, the film “Spirak,” which centers on the devastating earthquake that rocked Armenia on December 7, 1988 was Armenia’s official submission to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science for consideration. Directed by Russian filmmaker Alexander Kott, the feature film is based on true events and includes stories taken from eyewitness accounts. The film’s score is composed by musician and System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian.