Titane Is France's Submission For The International Film Oscar

In some of the coolest movie news of late, Julia Ducournau's Cannes acclaimed film "Titane" will represent France as their submission to the best international film category for the 2022 Oscars.

The 2021 Palme d'Or winner — written and directed by Ducournau — was among three films shortlisted in the country's two-part selection process. Audrey Diwan's "Happening," a Venice Golden Lion winner, and Cédric Jimenez's "Bac Nord" (aka "The Stronghold"), which was a box office hit, were also in the running.

The film follows actor Vincent Lindon, who plays a fire chief haunted by the disappearance of his young son. Amid the tensions of a town shaken by a series of grisly murders, the patriarch finds himself inextricably drawn to a strange young man who turns up at a local airport and claims to be his lost child.

The thriller is produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond at Kazak Productions in co-production with Belgium's Frakas Productions, Arte Cinema France and Belgian companies Voo and BeTV. It was sold by Wild Bunch International.

This year's selection committee for the international honor featured one-year members director-screenwriters Florian Zeller and Julie Delpy, Memento International CEO Emilie Georges, WTFilms' Grégory Chambet, former WarnerMedia senior executive Iris Knobloch and producer Alain Goldman. They chose the film alongside several permanent institutional members, including Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux, Unifrance president Serge Toubiana and César Academy co-president Véronique Cayla.

Julia Ducournau's Reputation Precedes Her

It's really cool to see the breakout horror writer-director of "Raw" finally starting to get her due in a more mainstream context. When her debut feature premiered at Cannes in 2016, she quickly made headlines due to filmgoers supposedly passing out and throwing up in the audience. The film — which I absolutely adore — isn't for the faint of heart, and the same could be said for "Titane" — so it's an understatement to say it's a breath of fresh air for a film like this to be raised up in this way. Not only is it a win for a prolific cinematic voice, but it is also a major win for genre cinema as a whole, no matter the outcome.

All things considered, it seems like France has a fighting shot of taking home the big prize. The country regularly makes it into the final nominee long and shortlists in the best international picture category. Most recently, Ladj Ly's 2020 debut feature "Les Misérables" was considered for an Oscar. However, the country has not won in the category since 1993, when it triumphed with Régis Wargnier's "Indochine." In 2012, France celebrated an Oscar victory when Michel Hazanavicius' black-and-white silent film "The Artist" won Best Picture.

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