A Russian film director who spent more than a decade in Hollywood has asked his colleagues not to consider his latest work for an Oscar nomination because of his disdain for U.S. cinema.
The Russian Oscar Committee is due to select the country's nomination for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film Sunday.
But Andrei Konchalovsky said he is withdrawing his film "The Postman's White Nights," which won an award at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival.
Hollywood destroys the cinematic tastes of Russian audiences, Konchalovsky, 77, said in a letter published Wednesday.
In addition, the "foreign-language film" category is segregation that promotes the "outdated" notion of Western cultural domination, Konchalovsky said.
"We'll get to the bottom of it," a member of the Russian Oscar Committee was cited by TASS as saying of the letter on Friday.
Konchalovsky — the brother of another acclaimed director, the Oscar-winning and America-bashing Nikita Mikhalkov — worked with the iconic Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky and made several popular films in the Soviet Union before moving to the U.S. in 1980.
His Hollywood-era output included "Tango & Cash" (1989) starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, and "Runaway Train" (1985), which, ironically, garnered three Academy Award nominations.
Konchalovsky, who returned to Russia in the 1990s, has also won film prizes in Berlin and Cannes, and packs several Emmys and Golden Globes for his television work.
