Oscar nominations 2022: Indian documentary ‘Writing With Fire’ makes the cut

Indian documentary ‘Writing With Fire’, directed by filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh from Delhi and about fearless journalists running an all-female news outlet, has entered the Oscars nomination race this year.

Their debut work, a compelling women-driven narrative set in rural India, has made it to this year’s Best Documentary Feature category in this year's Academy Awards nominations. 'Writing With Fire' is a true-life story about journalists who faced enormous obstacles to run a newspaper outlet called 'Khabar Lahariya'.

The celebrated film revolves around a newspaper run by marginalised Indian women who take on caste discrimination, casual sexism, and patriarchy fearlessly. According to its synopsis, the documentary chronicles the spine of India's only newspaper run by Dalit women. They are real-life clutter breakers and the documentary celebrates their uending courage and determination to have their voices heard.

The trailer also showcases a bunch of female journalists reporting from the ground and taking on their detractors. The documentary takes off when the newspaper was going through a print-to-digital transition and its reporters claiming that they had never used a mobile phone in their lives.

Its makers have alwasy maintained their work was their attempt at brining awareness to issues amongs the underrepresented communities in the world.

The coveted Oscars nomination isn't this film's first brush with accolades. The documentary was a film-festival favourite last year and won the Special Jury (Impact for Change) and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival. It has also won more than 15 awards at various film festivals in the last few months and has garnered glorious reviews.

India’s ‘Writing with Fire’ will compete against documentaries including ‘Ascension’, ‘Attica’, and ‘Flee and Summer of the Soul (Or When the Revolution Could not be Televised)’.

The Oscars ceremony will be held on March 27 this year.