France may be widely revered for its robust film industry, but the country has not won an Oscar for best international feature film since Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993. After revamping its Oscar film selection process three times over the past five years, the country is hoping to end its more than 30-year drought with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident.
The vast majority of the country’s international feature submissions have been French-language films, with some notable exceptions – 1959 winner Black Orpheus was a Brazilian co-production made in Portuguese, 2015 nominee Mustang was in Turkish, and 2025’s Emilia Pérez was mostly in Spanish.
Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables earned a nod in 2020, and Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us reached the shortlist of 15 in 2021. Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane, however, did not even make the shortlist in 2022.
After widespread local industry criticism of the film’s selection over Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening, and concern over potential conflicts of interest within the selection process, the country overhauled its Oscar submission process. It put the decision into the hands of a committee composed of two sales agents, two producers, two filmmakers and one industry figure, all chosen by the culture minister.
It was also deemed that the presidents of the CNC and Unifrance could attend commission meetings as observers. The committee next selected Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, which made the shortlist the following year but went no further.
Criticism of the process continued when Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste Of Things was chosen over Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall for the 2024 Oscars. Critics argued the decision was politically motivated following Triet’s fiery acceptance speech in Cannes, which defended France’s cultural exception and warned of the government intervening in its film financing system.
Further overhaul
In 2024, the CNC announced it had once again overhauled the selection process, expanding the committee from seven to 11 members and five alternatives, with members appointed for a two-year term, and the CNC’s president no longer attending selection meetings.
The committee picked Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, earning an international feature Oscar nomination (and wins in two other categories), though its awards chances were arguably stifled by a media backlash to star Karla Sofia Gascon’s historical social media posts.
Under the current system, representatives from five shortlisted films get to present their case to the committee, with the local sales agents and producers typically attending in-person at the CNC’s headquarters and the US distributors on Zoom from their offices – all in the same day.
This year’s shortlist comprised five Cannes premieres: It Was Just An Accident, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life, Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister and Ugo Bienvenu’s animation Arco. Panahi prevailed despite strong talking points from all of the entrants.
Neon is planning an awards push for It Was Just An Accident in multiple categories. Memento released the film in France in October, achieving 660,000 admissions. Producer Philippe Martin of Les Films Pelléas points out that Panahi “has been making films for 30 years, but has never been able to compete for an Oscar because Iran never wanted him to represent the country. There was no other possibility for him to be present at the Oscars if it weren’t via France”.
Insiders familiar with this year’s process tell Screen International the decision to select It Was Just An Accident was based on the film’s potential in the US market and its chances of winning an Oscar – not because it was ostensibly the most “French” of the bunch.
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