On Thursday, November 19 the selection commission decided that Two of Us by Filippo Meneghetti will be the official candidate proposed by France to vie for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars 2021.
Two of Us has been selected as the official French candidate for the Best International Feature Film Oscar 2021. This debut feature by Filippo Meneghetti, majority coproduced for France by Paprika Films, recounts the complex love story between two older women, played by Martine Chevallier and Barbara Sukowa. The film received its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019, and has been released in a dozen territories. Sold by The Party Film Sales, it will release on February 5, 2021 in the United States.
It should be noted that four other feature films had been pre-selected at the beginning of the week by a new commision of professionals: DNA, Summer of 85, Gagarine, and Cuties.
This new commission, with equal female and male representation, in charge of selecting the French contender was this year composed of the following filmmakers Mati Diop and Olivier Nakache, producers Marc Du Pontavice and Anne-Dominique Toussaint, exporters Carole Baraton and Juliette Schrameck, along with ex officio members Thierry Frémaux (Festival de Cannes) and Serge Toubiana (Unifrance), as well as Véronique Cayla and Éric Toledano (Académie des César).
A few weeks before the Oscars ceremony (which, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been postponed until April 25), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will announce the definitive list of films in competition for the Best International Feature Film.
To date, 59 other films have already been submitted to the Academy by their respective countries to qualify for this award, including French coproductions Working Girls (for Belgium), You Will Die at 20 (Sudan), Gaza mon amour (Palestine, majority coproduction), Night of the Kings (Ivory Coast, majority coproduction), The Weeping Woman (Guatemala), And Tomorrow the Entire World (Germany), Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
