France Unveils Pre-Selection List For Country’s Oscar Submission

Melanie Goodfellow
·2 min read
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France has unveiled the five pre-selected feature films in the running to be the country’s Oscar submission.

They are:

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  • Full Time by Eric Gravel (int’l sales. B For Film)

  • The Worst Ones by Lise Asoka and Romane Gueret (int’l sales, Pyramide Films)

  • Paris Memories by Alice Winocour (int’l sales, Pathé International)

  • Saint-Omer By Alice Diop (int’l sales, Wild Bunch International)

  • One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Love (int’l sales, Les Films du Losange)

This year’s selection committee, overseen by the National Cinema Centre (CNC), comprises international sales agents Hengameh Panahi, Grégoire Melin, producers Philippe Rousselet, Didar Domehri, directors Jacques Audiard and Michel Gondry and veteran Gaumont executive Ariane Toscan du Plantier.

It marks the first selection round since the overhaul of France’s selection committee over the summer to end the automatic involvement of the heads of the Cannes Film Festival, export agency Unifrance and the César Academy.

Hot favorites among the five selections are Alice Diop’s debut fiction feature drama Saint-Omer, following its Silver Lion Grand Jury prize and Luigi De Laurentis First Film Award at Venice.

Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May, also has the wind in its sails.

Starring Virginie Efira as a woman coming to terms with the trauma of being caught up in a terror attack in Paris, the film has recently opened to rave reviews in France and plaudits for Efira for her performance.

There’s also traction around Mia Hansen-Love’s One Fine Morning starring Lea Seydoux as a single mother juggling an ailing father and a love affair with an old friend.

Eric Gravel’s Full Time has also enjoyed international attention thanks to its world premiere in Venice’s Horizon’s sidebar in 2021, where it won best director and best actress for Call My Agent!  Star Laure Calamy.

Call My Agent! Calamy plays a harassed single mother whose journey to an important job interview is thwarted by a public transport strike.

The Worst Ones by Lise Asoka and Romane Gueret, following a group of youngsters who are cast on the street for a feature film, has generated less buzz but is also a worthy potential contender having won the Un Certain Regard prize this year.

The selection committee will audition the producer and international sales agent for each of the pre-selected titles on September 23, ahead of making a final selection.

The CNC said 33 feature films were submitted to the pre-selection process this year.

France last won the international film category with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993, while Ladj Ly’s 2019 Cannes Jury Prize winner Les Misérables was the last French film to make it through to the final nomination stage for the 2020 awards.

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