Director Olivier Assayas, producer Patrick Wachsberger and composer Alexandre Desplat are among the seven-strong committee appointed by France’s Centre National du Cinema (CNC) to select the country’s international feature Oscar entry.
Joining the trio on the committee are director Mounia Meddour; producer Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema; Sabine Chemaly, EVP of international distribution at TF1 Studio; and Tanja Meissner, former head of sales at Memento.
The committee is appointed by Rima Abdul Malak, French minister of culture, on the proposal of CNC president Dominic Boutonnat.
The seven professionals will meet twice in the presence of Boutonnat and Unifrance president Gilles Pelisson, both of whom are observers without voting rights.
The committee will select a three-to-five-strong shortlist on September 13; then will audition the producers, French distributors, and if necessary US distributors of each film before making a final choice. Submissions for the selection closed on July 31.
The French Oscar committee has been adjusted twice in the past few years, to increase the country’s chances in the best international film section; it last won the award in 1993 with Regis Wargnier’s Indochine. Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables was the last nominee, in 2020; with Alice Diop’s Saint Omer making the longlist for the 2023 awards.
Former Lionsgate co-chairman Wachsberger scored an Oscars hit last year as a producer of US title CODA, which won three awards including best picture.
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