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George Lanthimos’ "Dogtooth" is an Oscar nomination in the foreign films category. The last time a Greek film raced to the Oscars was back in 1977 when "Ifigeniya" directed by Michalis Kakoyiannis was nominated. This year's awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 27 February when we will keep our fingers crossed for Lanthimos to reach the finals and receive the golden statuette.

"It is very difficult to find what to say in such a case. I do not know exactly how I feel. Surely I am very surprised and happy. I think of my colleagues and I am very proud. I do not know what else to say. Maybe it's not a very formal statement, but this is it." With these very modest words film director Yorgos Lanthimos responded yesterday to the news that his film is a nominee for the most prestigious award in the guild.
 
"Dogtooth" will "set off" from Greece to Kodak Theatre for the 83^rd awards ceremony for the best films according to the American Film Academy. Each country, as an official participant in the contest, sends a total of 66 films but only five films from around the world reach the top positions and can hope that they will be awarded a statuette. "A Greek film is nominated for Oscar after three decades! There is a new wind blowing for the Greek cinema, showing its presence on the world stage more seriously. We all wish "Dogtooth" to take Oscar for a foreign film", states the Greek Film Academy which, last year for the first time, organized an awards festival for Greek films in Greece. Its winner was Yorgos Lanthimos’ film and it was subsequently sent to the list of nominations for the golden statuette, as an official participant. Actor Christos Sterioglou, who plays in the film, also says he is very pleasantly surprised by the news. In an interview for Associated Press, he states that the film shows how far stupidity could get when you want to put everything under control even when you are doing so because you love someone and want to protect this person.

Briefly, the film tells the story of a family. The father closes his three children in a house with a backyard and they never go out. The children in the film mature their teens and the father speaks lies all his life, keeping them isolated from the world, in an unreal world. "My house is my whole world for me," say the three children who do not react as normal persons. They live a wealthy, but totally isolated life in the house, entirely controlled by their father and mother. For some unknown reasons the children are under the thumb of their parents who want to protect them. The only person from the outside world is Christina who is brought by the father to satisfy the sexual desires of his son. But the presence of this "intruder" threatens to cause radical changes in this phenomenally stable and controlled world at home.

Before reaching the Oscars, "Dogtooth" took part in, and received awards from, many international festivals. It took the first prize in the selection Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival in 2009, it participated at festivals in Toronto, Berlin, Los Angeles. "Dogtooth" is the fourth Greek film nominated for the prestigious award of the American Film Academy after "Elektra" (1963), "Ifigeniya" (1977) by Michalis Kakoyiannis, "Red Lanterns" (1964) and "Dust Turns Red" (1966) by Vassilis Georgiadis. Jill Dasen's "Never on Sunday" with the participation of the legendary star of the Greek cinema, Melina Mercouri, was an Oscar nomination in five categories, but not in the best film category.

If we continue to track the Greek presence in Hollywood we will see that five Greeks have won the coveted prize so far: Katina Paksinou received Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in 1943, Vassilis Fotopoulos took the statuette for Art Ddirector and Scenography for the film "Zorba" in 1965, Manos Hadzidakis was awarded for his music to the film "Never on Sunday" in 1961 and Kostas Gavras was awarded for the screenplay of the film "The Missing" in 1982.

The other four films in the race with "Dogtooth" are "Biutiful" (Mexico), "In a Better World" (Denmark), "Incendies" (Canada), "Outside the Law" (Algeria).