'Ida' favourite to win foreign language Oscar

Ida. (Press materials).

A record 83 films are in the running for the 2015 Oscar, and a short list of nine will be announced in mid-January, before the official five nominees are confirmed later that month.

However, according to a survey of film critics by Variety film magazine, the Polish candidate is the frontrunner.

“Film critics recognized that Ida has all the attributes which members of the Academy like to give an Oscar for,” said Variety's awards editor Tim Gray, as cited by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“Of course, this is not a movie that's going to make a fortune in the US. But members of the Academy don't vote for the most popular film, but for art.”

Ida, which is set in the early 1960s, explores the plight of an orphan who is preparing to take her vows as a nun in rural Poland.

When she discovers her Jewish background, she seeks out her sole surviving relative, Wanda, an embittered judge who took part in Stalinist show trials.

Although the plot is fictional, Pawlikowski has acknowledged that the character of Wanda is loosely based on Helena Brus, a Stalinist-era judge who died in the UK in 2008.

Pawlikowski, who was born in Poland but spent much of his professional life in the UK, has already garnered a raft of awards for the film, including Best Film at the London Film Festival (2013) and the Golden Lions at the Gdynia Film Festival (2013). (nh)