Three French films will compete for Best Foreign Film honors at the 70th Golden Globes awards ceremony to be held mid-January, 2013.
Highly acclaimed at recent film festivals in London and Toronto, Rust & Bone has received excellent reviews since its release in North America late November. This marks the second Golden Globe nomination for its director Jacques Audiard, after his film A Prophet in 2010.
The film's lead actress Marion Cotillard is nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, an award that the French star received in 2008 for La Vie en Rose. Well-trained in the art of film promotion with the US media, Cotillard is in a good position to be nominated for an Academy Award, with the recent announcement of her nomination at the SAG Awards and the Critics Choice Awards, both of which will be presented in January.
The Intouchables by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache has seen its popular success (registering over $10 million at the American box office) result in a nomination at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, with a likely nomination at the Academy Awards in the near future, bolstered by persuasive lobbying by its producer-distributor Harvey Weinstein.
These two French film nominees, which are competing for a Golden Globe against two Scandinavian productions, join the ranks of the awards favorite Love by Michael Haneke. In the wake of its Palme d'Or win at Cannes and a scoop at the European Film Awards, Love is currently picking up prizes in America, notably from the New York Film Society, the National Board of Review, as well as Best Film honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
The film's lead actress Emmanuelle Riva has also been in the spotlight, despite being left out of the Golden Globes nominations, voted Best Actress award by Film Critics of Los Angeles and Boston.
Also nominated at the Golden Globes, and marking his fifth nomination, is the French composer Alexandre Desplat in the Best Original Score for a Motion Picture category. This nomination is not for Rust & Bone, for which Desplat also composed the music, but for the American film Argo. He was previously awarded a Golden Globe award in 2006 and is a regular contender at the Academy Awards.
There is good reason to wager that these three French films will feature among nominees for the 2013 Academy Awards, to be announced January 10.
