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Oscar: Alice Diop’s ‘Saint-Omer’ will represent France
CINEMA – The movie “Saint Omer”awarded twice at the beginning of September in the Venice Film Festival, by director Alice Diop was chosen for represent France at the Oscars 2023announced this Friday, September 23, the National Film Center (CNC).
Inspired by a true story of an infanticide trial, “Saint Omer” seek to explore the “universal question” of “relationship with motherhood”stated the director during the Mostra.
His film tells the story of Laurence Coly, played by Guslagie Malanda, a Senegalese immigrant accused of killing her 15-month-old baby by abandoning her on a northern beach at high tide. The trial-centric film is directly inspired by a 2013 news story and the trial that followed.
Movie ” emblematic of the renaissance of French cinema »
This is the first feature film by the 43-year-old director, until then specialized in documentaries whose ” Us “ (2021), which took the viewer to meet a territory -the one crossed by the RER B- and its inhabitants.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the First Film Prize in Venice, “Saint Omer” it is “a powerful film, emblematic of the renaissance of French cinema that we are proud to have supported, in particular with the income advance”greeted the head of the CNC, Dominique Boutonnat, quoted in the press release. It will be released in theaters on November 23.
The 95th Academy Awards will take place on March 12, 2023, in Los Angeles. Previously, a shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, 2022, before the five finalist films on January 24, 2023.
At the end of July, the CNC reviewed the organization of its commission in charge of selecting the French film for the Oscars. From now on, the commission is made up of seven professionals appointed each year by the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, at the proposal of the president of the CNC.
The last French film to win the Oscar for best international film was “IndoChina” by Regis Wargnier, in 1993. “Titanium” by Julia Ducournau, tricolor representative in 2022, had not been shortlisted by the Academy for the Oscars.
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