France has selected Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix winner Minotaur to represent the country in the best international feature film Oscar category.
The film was selected by an 11-member committee and was one of five shortlisted finalists alongside Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva, Louis Clichy’s animated Iron Boy, and Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle: Résistance.
Members of the committee, appointed by France’s culture minister on the recommendation of national film body CNC, met at the CNC’s Paris headquarters on Wednesday (September 16) to hear from the producers, international sales agents and US distributors of each shortlisted film before making their final decision.
This year’s shortlist came with a heavyweight roster of US distributors: Neon for The Unknown, Samuel Goldwyn Films for De Gaulle, 1-2 Special for La Gradiva, Sony Pictures Classics for Iron Boy, and Mubi for Minotaur.
France revamped its selection committee in 2024, expanding it from seven to 11 members, introducing two-year terms and removing the CNC president’s observer role to reinforce its independence. The selection committee is chaired by former Cannes Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, and comprises Grégory Chambet, Nadim Cheikhrouha, Thierry de Clermont-Tonnerre, Ron Dyens, Nicolas Eschbach, Coralie Fargeat, Emilie Lesclaux, Sophie Mas, Adeline Monzier, and Sylvie Pialat.
France has overhauled its selection process several times in the past five years in an effort to improve its chances since it last won the category in 1993 with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine. CNC president Gaëtan Bruel said the selection “maximises our chances of winning the Oscar for best international feature film”, adding: “The CNC and Unifrance… will strongly support the French candidate, as well as all French films competing in one of the Oscars categories, as part of a renewed strategy. The goal is to win.”
Minotaur marks the second consecutive year France has backed an exiled filmmaker. Last year, Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s French-majority production It Was Just An Accident earned an Oscar nomination. Zvyagintsev lives in France and has been an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was eligible for consideration under Academy rules that state: “The submitting country or region must confirm that creative control of the film was largely in the hands of citizens, residents, or individuals with refugee or asylum status in the submitting country or region.”
Set in Russia and shot in the Russian language, Minotaur follows a wealthy shipping executive whose suspicions that his wife is having an affair send his personal life into turmoil against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dmitriy Mazurov and Iris Lebedeva lead the cast of the film, which premiered in competition at Cannes in May, winning the grand prix. It recently played at Telluride and TIFF and next heads to New York Film Festival.
The French-majority co-production is led by Charles Gillibert’s CG Cinéma and Paris-based MK Productions, the production arm of international sales company mk2 Films, with Germany’s Razor Film and Latvia’s Forma Pro Films co-producing. Mk2 Films handles international sales, while Les Films du Losange will release the film in France on October 14. Mubi holds North American rights as part of a multi-territory deal also covering the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and will release the film in US cinemas on November 20.
Zvyagintsev previously secured two international feature Oscar nominations representing Russia, for Leviathan in 2015 and Loveless in 2018.
The deadline for international feature submissions is September 30. The Academy will unveil its 15-film shortlist on December 15, and announced the five nominees on January 21, 2027.
The 99th Academy Awards will take place on March 14, 2027.
