Russia has nominated film director Fyodor Bondarchuk’s World War II drama “Stalingrad” for the US Academy Awards, a member of Russia’s Oscars nomination commission said. “Stalingrad” tells the story of group of Soviet soldiers fighting Nazi Germans and their allies in the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in human history. It is the first Russian movie made completely with 3D technology, with a $30 million budget..The Oscars will be awarded on March 2, 2014 in Los Angeles. American TV host and actress Ellen DeGeneres will host the ceremony.

Bondarchuk is a popular Russian filmmaker and actor whose oeuvre includes several action-packed blockbusters and dozens of music videos. The Oscar could be the second one in his family – his father, director and actor Sergei Bondarchuk, won one in the best foreign-language film category for his adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” novel in 1968.