Slovenian Špela Čadež becomes a member of Oscars academy
Ljubljana, 27 June - Slovenian director and animator Špela Čadež has become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation which awards the Oscars. "This is a great honour. I'm looking forward to judging the films," she told the STA on Wednesday.
Ljubljana
One of Slovenia's top animators Špela Čadež.
Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA
File photo.
The academy invited more than 900 film creators among its ranks this year and Čadež accepted the invitation. While membership statistics by nationality are not available and the Slovenian Film Centre does not have the data, Čadež is likely the first Slovenian member of the academy.
Čadež, born in 1977, is one of the most prolific and internationally acclaimed Slovenian film makers, having made a name for herself in the international arena in particular with the animated films Boles (2013) and Nighthawk (2016).
Nighthawk, which deals with alcoholism and society's failure to tackle it openly, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, received a special mention at the Ars Electronica, and won the main prize at the Animateka Zagreb festival the same year.
Čadež indicated she would be a voice for independent animated film at the academy, noting that it had been under huge pressure from the film industry, as indicated by the awarding of the Oscar for short animated film an animated telling of basketball player Kobe Bryant's poem Dear Basketball.
She feels the academy wanted to correct the impression this year, which is why it invited several independent animated film makers. This raises the prospect that the next Oscar will be awarded to a film that deserves it, not a film backed by a powerful celebrity.