Bookmakers believe Latvia has slim chances of winning its first Oscar in history

Last week, pleasant news swept across Latvia: for the first time in history, a Latvian film has made this year’s Oscars shortlist with the soundtrack to “Blizzard of Souls,” which is among 15 other compositions in the film score category. The five nominees who will compete for victory at the prestigious Oscars ceremony will be announced in a month, on 15 March. Meanwhile, Betsafe bookmakers assess the film’s chances of making the list of nominees as relatively high, at 25%; however, experts consider the prospects of winning Latvia’s first Oscar in history rather slim, assigning this outcome a probability of just 3%.

“It is very pleasing that a Latvian film has made the shortlist in the soundtrack category. However, “Blizzard of Souls” is not one of the favourites in this category, and most likely we will not make it into the top five, or the final nominations, this time. That said, the fact that Lolita Ritmanis is the only woman among the 15 composers on the list could certainly improve its chances. In recent years, Hollywood has placed increasing emphasis on equality in terms of minorities, race, gender and other aspects, so this card could also play a positive role with regard to a nomination. Unfortunately, though, it is unlikely to be enough to win the statuette itself,” comments Betsafe forecasting expert Valters Rozmanis.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Latvijas Radio 1 last week, Dita Rietuma, head of the National Film Centre, emphasised that no Latvian film had previously managed to make the Oscars shortlist. In her view, this is “a big step towards an Oscar”. “Of the more than 130 films that could have competed for a place on the shortlist, exactly 15 successful films remain; moreover, the talented Lolita Ritmanis is the only female composer on the list. This is a fact noticed by the international press,” the expert commented. She also noted that the number of submissions for the prestigious award had been very high this year, and that the competition could be described as “tough and ruthless”.

In the competition for Best Original Score, “Blizzard of Souls” stands alongside such films as “Tenet”, “Mank”, “Soul”, “News of the World” and “The Trial of Chicago 7”; however, only “Blizzard of Souls” and Sophia Loren’s film “The Life Ahead” are the only non-Hollywood productions competing for the award in the music category. It should be noted that “Blizzard of Souls” did not make the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film nomination. The Oscar nominations will be announced on 15 March, while the awards ceremony itself will take place two months later than usual this year—on 25 April. Although Latvia has submitted 12 films for Oscar consideration over the past 30 years, none had previously made the shortlist in any category.

Composer Lolita Ritmanis has already received several awards for the soundtrack to “Blizzard of Souls”—both the Lielais Kristaps in Latvia and the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Music in a Foreign Language Film. Ritmanis is a Latvian-American composer of Latvian descent, born in Portland, USA, who has gained wider recognition specifically for her compositions for films and television series. She is the only Latvian to have received an Emmy Award, for the musical score of the animated series “Batman: Beyond”. As the composer herself acknowledges, “Blizzard of Souls” could have an advantage in the race for an Oscar because a large team of musicians, including an orchestra and choir, was involved in creating the film’s soundtrack, whereas the musical accompaniment for the other films was produced on a considerably smaller scale.

The Oscars came into the wider spotlight in September last year, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced new rules for a film to qualify among the contenders for the Best Picture nomination. These rules are aimed at increasing the inclusion of minorities in film production. For example, one criterion stipulates that at least 30 percent of the performers in “minor roles” must come from minority groups, or that the film must feature a prominent actor from a minority group. The new rules will come into force in 2024.

The Academy Award, better known as the Oscar, is the highest honour in the film industry in the United States and the most prominent award of its kind in the world. The Oscars were first presented in 1929 and are considered the world’s oldest entertainment award. Every year, viewers in more than 200 countries follow the Oscars ceremony.