This year's Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winner has been selected to represent France at the Academy Awards.
Of Gods and Men has been chosen by the French selection committee to compete for nomination at the Academy Awards. This committee is composed of seven members: Florence Malraux, president of the "Avance sur Recettes" Commission; Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival; Alain Terzian, president of the Académie des Césars; the actress Jeanne Moreau; and the film directors Philippe Pollet-Villard, Costa-Gavras, and Régis Wargnier (the most recent French director to have won an Oscar in the Best Foreign-Language Film category, for Indochina in 1993).
Of Gods and Men has already been sold in a dozen territories by its sales agent Goodfellas. Sony Pictures Classics will no doubt take advantage of added exposure in the lead up to the Oscars, with a release scheduled early 2011.
Of Gods and Men will be presented this month at the Festa do Cinema Frances in Portugal, the Pusan International Film Festival, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, and the London Film Festival, among other international events.
The film by Xavier Beauvois is still not sure to enter the Academy Awards race, since the final decision on nominees is left to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The candidates in the Best Foreign-Language Film category will be announced in January, with the 83rd Oscars ceremony to be held the following month.
Earlier this year, Jacques Audiard's film A Prophet featured among the five finalists in this category. The film finished its run at the US box office with $1.5 million.
