France’s Oscar committee has selected Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” for the international feature film race. The other three films that were in contention, “Misericordia,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “All We Imagine As Light,” have been snubbed.
By all accounts, Audiard’s film was the right pick. It’s one of the very few Best Picture locks that we have at the present moment. If they had picked any other film then it would have been a controversial decision. France hasn't won a best international feature Oscar since 1993 for Regis Warner's “Indochine.”
The ‘Perez’ pick comes just a year after France snubbed Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of A Fall” and instead opted to select “The Taste of Things” as its submission. The end result was that ‘Taste’ didn’t get nominated, and ‘Anatomy’ ended up nabbing Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress nominations, and won Best Original Screenplay.
In 2022, France again caused controversy by selecting Palme d’Or winner “Titane” over Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winning abortion drama “Happening” which had momentum going for it due to it having been released in the U.S. as the Supreme Court voted to strike down Roe v. Wade.