China changes Oscars entry after organisers say Wolf Totem ‘not Chinese enough’

China has made a last-minute change to its submission for next year’s Oscars because its Sino-French hopeful Wolf Totem failed to have enough Chinese among its creative staff to be eligible, state media reported.

China Film News, a newspaper managed by the state broadcasting administration, said on Saturday that the Film Bureau had last Monday received a notification from the award organisers saying the movie did not meet requirements.

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A requirement for eligibility for the best foreign language film award states that the submitting country must certify “that creative control of the motion picture was largely in the hands of citizens or residents of that country”. Oscars organisers did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

While the main actors were Chinese and the language was predominantly Putonghua with some Mongolian, the production team was largely foreign.

China had had high hopes for Wolf Totem, one of an increasing number of co-productions with foreign countries that enable the Chinese film industry to develop its technical know-how.

The movie’s director, France’s Jean-Jacques Annaud, earlier said the film’s Chinese backers had initially wanted an “English-speaking movie with famous Chinese-American actors” until he talked them out of it.

Based on a semi-autobiographical novel, Wolf Totem tells the story of a pupil sent to live in Mongolia among nomads during the Cultural Revolution who becomes fascinated with wolves.

China Film News said it had been replaced by Go Away Mr Tumour, a romantic comedy about an optimistic woman coping with cancer. The last Chinese submission to be nominated for best foreign language film was Zhang Yimou’s 2002 epic Hero.