Kosovo family drama Shame and Money qualifies for the Oscars and lines up an early 2027 US release
A family drama set in Kosovo has a path to the Oscars and a North American release date. Shame and Money, directed by Visar Morina, qualifies to compete for the best international feature Oscar under updated Academy rules, The Hollywood Reporter reported on 9 November.
The film is also an official candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards, according to Kosovo's Cinematography Centre, which announced the news in September. The international category is the one where each country submits a single film.
The story follows a family struggling with inequality and precarity in Kosovo. Precarity means living with money worries that never fully go away. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier in 2026, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, one of the festival's top prizes for films from outside the United States.
Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli lead the cast. Kumrije Hoxa, Fiona Gllavica and Alban Ukaj also appear. Morina wrote the script with Doruntina Basha, and the producers are Fabian Altenried, Sophie Ahrens, Kristof Gerega, Pia Hellenthal and Morina himself.
The project is a co-production, meaning it was financed and made by partners in several countries. According to Sundance's festival listing, the partners are based in Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia and Belgium.
For the US and Canada, Oscilloscope Laboratories has bought the North American distribution rights. Distribution rights are the licence to sell and release a film in a given territory. Oscilloscope plans to open the film in early 2027, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shame and Money is Morina's third film in the running for the international Oscar. His earlier films Babai and Exile were also submitted for the category. Each film has taken a different route to audiences, and this one's path runs from a Sundance premiere, through a festival prize and an Academy candidacy, to a cinema release planned for next year.
