# ‘Ulya’ Director Dives Into His Third Latvian Oscar Contender, Which Stars a Rising Actor as a Female Basketball Legend and Became a “Blockbuster”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/ulya-director-dives-into-his-third-latvian-oscar-contender-which-stars-a-rising-actor-as-a-female-basketball-legend-and-became-a-blockbuster/
- Published: 2026-11-04T10:01:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-06T02:39:08+00:00
- Original publisher: The Hollywood Reporter
- Original article: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-2027-film-latvia-ulya-basketball-blockbuster-interview-1236745736/
- Topics: Basketball, Business, Celebrity, Entertainment, Film, Markets, Sport

## Key points

- Latvia chose *Ulya* as its 2027 international feature Oscar contender.
- Kārlis Arnolds Avots portrays basketball great Uljana Semjonova.
- The Baltic co-production has become a Latvian blockbuster.

## Summary

Latvia has selected Viesturs Kairišs’s black-and-white film *Ulya* as its contender for the 2027 international feature film Oscar. Starring rising actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots as basketball legend Uljana Semjonova, the film traces her journey from a rural Old Believer community into elite sport and highlights the growing international reach of Baltic cinema.

Semjonova was a two-time Olympic and three-time world champion, won the Soviet national championship and European Champions Cup 15 times each, and became the first non-US woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. *Ulya* premiered at Cannes and will open Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; it is a co-production between Latvia, Poland, Estonia and Lithuania. Director Kairišs says the film has become a blockbuster in Latvia, and it is his third film selected by the country as an Oscar contender.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.