Chinese director Chen Kaige's high-profile martial arts film, The Promise, has received its final "license" to compete for Best Foreign Film in next year's Academy Awards.
The film's publicist, Huang Bing, announced that they received the official notification from the Film Bureau yesterday.
According to the Academy's rules, to be able to compete for the Best Foreign Film Oscar a film must be screened in its home country for at least one week. Huang said that the film's director Chen Kaige and producer Chen Hong, are preparing the first print of the film for the screening.
The film is slated to premiere on the mainland in Chengdu, in south China's Sichuan Province on 29th September. The film will then screen in cinemas there from 30th September till 5th October. There will be only one screening each day, scheduled at 2 PM. The ticket price will be a pricy 120 yuan.
In order to protect the film from piracy, audiences are being asked take their identity cards with them when buying tickets.
This mega budget pan-Asian production will be released across the world in December.
(CRI September 27, 2005)
