Telefilm Canada announced on Tuesday that Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ Nina Roza has become Canada’s official Oscar submission for the 99th Academy Awards.
A pan-Canadian committee comprising filmmakers and industry professionals made the selection on Tuesday morning after considering 17 films.
The Colonelle Films feature made in co-production with UMI Films, Ginger Light, PREMIERstudio, and Echo Bravo premiered in competition at the Berlinale earlier this year where Dulude-De Celles won the Silver Bear for best screenplay.
Nina Roza follows a Bulgarian immigrant art dealer in Quebec who must travel back to a rural region in his native country to find out if the paintings of a so-called child prodigy are genuine or a hoax. Galin Stoev, Michelle Tzontchev, and twins Ekaterina and Sofia Stanina star.
Producers are Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew (Canada), Lorenzo Fiuzzi and Bardo Tarantelli (Italy), Lubomira Piperova and Nikolay Mutafchiev (Bulgaria), and Benoît Hansez and Etienne Hansez (Belgium).
Nina Roza received its North American premiere when it opened the 44th Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma and has made stops at Sofia International Film Festival, Istanbul, Jeonju and Shanghai. Coming up are slots at Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, and AFI Fest.
“I am both delighted and humbled by this honour, which is shared by the entire film family, beginning with those in Quebec and Canada, as well as in Bulgaria, Italy and Belgium,” Dulude-De Celles said.
The filmmaker’s first fiction feature, A Colony, premiered at the 2019 Berlinale where it won the Crystal Bear for best film in the Generation Kplus section. It went on to win the Canadian Screen Award for best motion picture.
No comments yet