France Names Five Films for the International Oscar Shortlist

The five titles

France’s National Film Board has published a five-film shortlist for the country’s Best International Feature submission: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Minotaur”, Antonin Baudry’s wartime “The Battle of De Gaulle: The Iron Age”, Arthur Harari’s “The Unknown” with Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider, Louis Clichy’s animated “Iron Boy”, and Marine Atlan’s “La Gradiva.”

The secret committee meets again on 16 September to hear producers, sales agents and U.S. distributors before the final national choice.

A long wait for a statuette

France remains a historic force in the category but has not won since Régis Wargnier’s “Indochine” in 1993. That drought shapes how each shortlist is read: not as a courtesy list, but as a bet on which film can survive an American voting body.

What the mix signals

A Russian auteur’s French production, a Gaullist war picture, a star-led art film, an animation and a smaller auteur title. The committee has refused to pick a single register. The next decision will have to.