Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix winner Minotaur, Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva, Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy, and Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle: Résistance have been shortlisted to represent France in the international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.
France’s 11-member selection committee met on Thursday (September 10) at national film body CNC’s headquarters in Paris and will reconvene on September 16, when it will hear from the films’ producers, international sales agents and US distributors before making its final choice.
Appointed by France’s culture minister on the recommendation of the CNC, the committee comprises producers, distributors, sales agents, artists and representatives from institutions and festivals.
France is looking to end a drought of more than three decades in the category, having last won the international feature Oscar in 1993 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine. The country has overhauled its selection process several times in the past five years in a bid to improve its chances.
This year’s shortlist reflects the increasingly international face of French cinema and spans a foreign-born filmmaker working in a language other than French, films set outside France, and an animated feature.
The contenders
Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur (Minotaure) has emerged as a frontrunner for selection since winning the Grand Prix at Cannes in May. While it takes place in Russia and is in the Russian language, it is a French-majority co-production led by Paris-based MK Productions and CG Cinéma, alongside partners in Latvia and Germany. Zvyagintsev lives in exile in France and has been an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. mk2 Films handles international sales and Les Films du Losange will release in France on October 14.
Mubi holds North American rights as part of a multi-territory deal that covers the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Were Minotaur to be selected it would mark the second consecutive year that France has backed an exiled filmmaker after Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s French-majority production It Was Just An Accident last year. The film earned a nomination.
Neon has taken several French and French co-produced films to Oscar success in recent years, including It Was Just An Accident, and best picture nominees Sentimental Value, which won last year’s international feature film Oscar, and Anatomy Of A Fall, an original screenplay winner for Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. Harari returns to the race with another Neon title, Cannes Competition entry The Unknown (L’Inconnue) starring Niels Schneider as a photographer who wakes up in the body of a mysterious woman played by Léa Seydoux. Pathé handles international sales and French distribution, with Neon taking North American rights.
Pathé is also behind fellow contender De Gaulle: Resistance (La Bataille De Gaule – L’age De Fer), the first part of Baudry’s two-part geopolitical epic starring Simon Abkarian as former French president Charles de Gaulle. Pathé produces and handles international sales and French distribution. The two instalments, De Gaulle: Resistance and De Gaulle: Liberté, now combine for more than five million admissions in France following their June releases. The films have sold widely internationally though a US distributor that has yet to be officially announced.
Marine Atlan’s feature debut La Gradiva won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize and is a coming-of-age tale about French high-school students dealing with emotional turbulence on a trip to Pompeii. mk2 Films handles sales and Tandem French distribution and 1-2 Special will release in the US.
Louis Clichy’s animated Iron Boy (Le Corset) won the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at Cannes before winning a trio of prizes at Annecy. The France-Belgium coming-of-age tale follows an 11-year-old farm boy whose life is upended when a mysterious illness leaves him reliant on an iron brace. Playtime handles sales and Sony Pictures Classics holds US rights.
Under new Academy rules non-English-language winners of top prizes at six international festivals are eligible for the international feature film Oscar category alongside official national submissions. No French-majority production has secured one of these festival prizes this year.
The deadline for international feature submissions is September 30. The Academy will unveil its 15-film shortlist on December 15 and the five nominees will be announced on January 21, 2027.
The 99th Academy Awards will take place on March 14, 2027.
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