Beyonce, Jay-Z and Grande in Oscars race as shortlists

Entertainment Live: Beyonce, Jay-Z and Ariana Grande are all in the running for the best original song Oscar, but French shock-fest "Titane" did not make the shortlist for best foreign film, as the Academy unveiled its annual shortlists Tuesday ahead of the formal nominations.

Pop superstar Beyonce's ballad "Be Alive" penned for the tennis biopic "King Richard," about the father of Serena and Venus Williams (played by Will Smith) was on a list of 15 tracks, which will be whittled down to a final five before March's Oscars.

She will compete against her husband Jay-Z, who produced Netflix Western "The Harder They Fall," and teamed up with Kid Cudi for the movie's track "Guns Go Bang."

Grande appears in satire "Don't Look Up," in which her pop star character sings "Just Look Up" to implore the public to take seriously the impending threat of a comet plummeting towards Earth.

Fifteen contenders were unveiled for the international feature film Academy Award, from among 92 eligible movies. Each country is only permitted to submit one film.

France boasts the most foreign film nominations of any country in Oscars history, but will watch from the sidelines this year after its selection, Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or-winning body-horror "Titane," failed to make the cut.

"The Rescue," about the headline-grabbing 2018 race to save a Thai soccer team trapped in a cave, and Questlove's "Summer of Soul," about the huge but largely forgotten "Black Woodstock" festival that took place in 1969 Harlem, also made the cut.

Dhaka, 23 December (campuslive24.com)//AZ

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