The choice of the outsider.
The National Center for Cinema and Animated Image (CNC) thwarted the predictions Thursday night by dubbing to represent French cinema at the 2021 Oscars the lesbian love story
Deux
by Filippo Meneghetti on the secret idyll between two neighbors in their seventies , camped by Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier.
Léa Drucker plays the daughter of one of them.
The Italian director's debut feature was very well received by critics but only made 49,000 box office admissions.
"By filming the secret loves of two sixty-year-old women like a thriller, Filippo Meneghetti avoids the pitfalls of the homo melody"
, greeted the critic of
Le Figaro
, Étienne Sorin
at the time of his release
.
»
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In this shortlist, it was rather the three feature films that received the Cannes 2020 label that were favorites, in particular
ADN
the semi-autobiographical story of Maïwenn where she questions her Algerian roots, whose theatrical exploitation has was stopped dead by the second confinement, and the broken romance of
Summer 85
by François Ozon.
Gagarin
by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh was also in the game.
The drama that should have come out on November 18 chronicles Yuri's fight to save his city.
The 16-year-old boy grew up in Gagarin, a huge city of red bricks in Ivry-sur-Seine, where he dreams of becoming a cosmonaut.
When he learns that she is threatened with demolition, Youri decides to join the resistance.
Mignonnes
by Maïmouna Doucouré is also in the running.
The drama about a schoolgirl, stuck between the prejudices of her family and the sassy morals of her girlfriends had the advantage of having been acquired and broadcast by Netflix, but should have made forget the painful unjustified controversy over the hypersexualization of her heroines caused by the errors of the marketing department of the platform which had chosen a very bad and misleading poster.
The CNC's selection committee made this decision following hearings with producers, international sellers and American distributors of the shortlisted films.
Deux
had been very well received during its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and will be distributed in the United States by Magnolia Pictures.
A long road to a possible Oscar nomination
This year, the CNC commission was made up of filmmakers Mati Diop (
Atlantique
) and Olivier Nakache (
Hors-Normes
), producers Marc du Pontavice and Anne-Dominique Toussaint and exporters Carole Baraton and Juliette Schrameck, accompanied by the three ex officio members are Thierry Frémaux (Deputy Managing Director of the Cannes Film Festival), Serge Toubiana (President of Unifrance) and Véronique Cayla (President of the Académie des César).
This preselection is only a first step.
Two
will then have to attract the votes and the favors of the members of the selection committee for the Oscar for best international film.
Of the hundred films from all over the world and submitted to the judgment of these Oscar members, they will keep nine.
Then, all the voters of the Academy of Oscars will vote.
Will be nominated and can hope to leave with the trophy the five films having arrived at the top of the votes.
France has not won a trophy since
Régis Wargnier's
Indochina
in 1993, but with thirty-nine nominations and nine victories, it remains one of the most successful countries.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 93rd Academy Awards have been postponed until April 25, 2021. The Caesars are also likely to shift.
