The commission responsible for selecting the film which will represent France at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category has chosen The Intouchables.
The comedy by Eric Tolédano and Olivier Nakache is now among the dozens of foreign films presented from around the world in the running for the final selection of five titles to compete for the award which will be announced in February 2013.
The Weinstein Company, which so masterfully led The Artist to the Academy Awards in 2011, released The Intouchables at the end of May in the United States. It's initial run was only 4 prints, before being progressively expanded to 194 screens. The film is still running and to date has accumulated more than a million admissions across the Atlantic.
With 23.5 million admissions worldwide, The Intouchables now holds the place of the most-seen film in the French language.
This year, the commission in charge of selecting the film representing France for the Oscar of Best Foreign Language Film was made up of Bérénice Béjo (actress), Sylvain Chomet (director) , Didier Lavergne (makeup, actor), Abdel Raouf Dafri (screenwriter), and Carole Scotta (producter). We mustn't forget the committee's two full members: the President of the Avance sur Recettes fund (publisher Paul Otchakovsky - Laurens) and the General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival (Thierry Frémaux).
