Oscars: Czech Republic Picks Doc ‘If Pigeons Turned to Gold’ as Best Int’l Feature Submission
The Czech Film and Television Academy has chosen 'If Pigeons Turned to Gold,' a documentary by filmmaker Pepa Ljubojacki, as the nation's official entry for Best International Feature at the 2027 Academy Awards. The work presents an unconventionally crafted examination spanning five years of a family confronting addiction, employing stylised diary footage, archival imagery, and graphic compositions to explore both individual deterioration and collective family consequences. The film earned recognition at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, taking home the documentary feature prize and the independent Caligari award.
The submission joins worldwide entries competing for consideration in this category, with the Academy's initial shortlist of fifteen films to be revealed in mid-December and the final five nominees announced in late January. This marks another Czech entry in a race where the nation has previously triumphed three times, most recently with 'Kolya' in 1996. The documentary is slated for theatrical release in Czech cinemas by month's end.
- Czech Republic selected documentary 'If Pigeons Turned to Gold' by Pepa Ljubojacki for the 2027 Best International Feature Oscar race
- Director's five-year study of family members battling addiction uses experimental filmmaking techniques and won awards at Berlin Film Festival
- Film enters competition alongside international submissions; shortlist of 15 announced December 15, five nominees January 21
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If Pigeons Turned to Gold is a documentary by director Pepa Ljubojacki that follows one family's experience of addiction over five years, mixing diary-style footage, archive material and graphic elements rather than a conventional documentary format. It has already been shown at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the documentary feature prize and the separate Caligari award.
The Czech Film and Television Academy has now chosen it as the country's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the next Academy Awards. Each country may put forward only one film in this category, and national academies make that choice before the wider Oscars process begins.
The Academy will narrow all countries' submissions down to a shortlist of fifteen in December, then to five nominees in January, ahead of the ceremony. The Czech Republic has won this award three times before, most recently for Kolya in 1996, which gives context to how the country's entries are usually received in this category.