Lithuania Picks ‘Drowning Dry’ for International Film
Lithuania has selected Laurynas Bareisa’s sophomore feature Drowning Dry as its entry in the best international feature race for the 2025 Oscars.
The movie about two sisters who experience a life-altering family tragedy recently won the best directing honor at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, as well as one of its two best performance awards for its ensemble cast, consisting of Gelmine Glemzaite, Agne Kaktaite, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevicius. THR‘s review called the movie “subtle and haunting.”
Bareiša is no stranger to festival awards and the Oscar race. The filmmaker’s crime drama and debut feature Pilgrims won the Horizons section award for best film at the Venice Film Festival 2021 and became Lithuania’s entry for the best international feature film race.
His second feature’s original Lithuanian title is Seses, meaning “sisters.” The English title refers to a nonmedical term used to refer to acute lung injury resulting from underwater accidents. “I used the irregular repetition of the dry drowning condition as a structural element of the story to highlight the various ways of dealing with trauma,” Bareisa recently told THR.
He felt that Drowning Dry was “a good and unique name that is also a good representation of what the film is about,” he also shared. “It works literally and also [as a reference to the] themes of the film.”
Neringa Kazukauskaite, the chairwoman of the Lithuanian commission deciding on the country’s international Oscar submissions, lauded Drowning Dry for “the original thinking of the director, a unique way of storytelling and “an excellent acting ensemble,” according to a Facebook post by the Lithuanian Film Center. She concluded: “In the international context, this film further consolidates the notion that Lithuania produces original cinema of high artistic quality, which can be interesting and appreciated all over the world.”
Lithuania has regularly submitted films in the international Oscar category but has never been nominated.
