The battle to represent France in the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards just heated up as the country’s Oscar selection committee unveiled its shortlist of five candidates on Wednesday.
They are:
- Arco, Ugo Bienvenu (production : Remembers et Mountain A)
- The Little Sister, Hafsia Herzi (production : June Films)
- Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater (production : ARP Sélection)
- It Was Just An Accident, Jafar Panahi (production : Les Films Pelléas)
- A Private Life, Rebecca Zlotowski (production : Les Films Velvet)
The French selection committee overseen by France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) is composed of members drawn from artistic and industry sides of the film world, all of whom have experience on the awards trail.
Unlike previous years, the CNC has not revealed identities of the committee members as yet.
The committee will reconvene on September 17 to audition the teams connected to the pre-selected films and then decide the entry.
Tough battle ahead
Feelings are running higher than usual in the French film world over which film should be France’s 2026 candidate.
Richard Linklater’s French-language black-and-white film Nouvelle Vague, paying tribute to the French New Wave movement, initially looked like one of the strongest candidates for the honor.
Acquired by Netflix for the U.S. following its world premiere in Cannes, the film is due to release in U.S. theaters on October 31, before launching on the platform on November 14.
In a sign of the marketing might it can put behind an awards campaign, Netflix released fresh images and a trailer for the film on the eve of the CNC pre-selection meeting.
The positioning of Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s Farsi-language Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident as a candidate has muddied the waters for the French-language hopefuls.
Questions have been rife over whether there is a route to the Oscars for the film ever since it clinched the top prize in Cannes.
Panahi’s public opposition to Iran’s Islamic Republic government means his film will not be forward as the country’s Oscar entry, and it is unlikely that the director would want to take up that offer in any case.
This situation has raised the question once again as to whether the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) should create a special category for dissident filmmakers who are barred from representing their countries.
AMPAS has thus far resisted these calls and in the meantime, high-profile festival titles with strong awards potential by dissident directors such as Panahi are looking for other ways in.
The French angle for It Was Just An Accident comes through Paris-based co-producer Les Films Pelléas and distributor Memento Distribution.
The film is also co-produced by Luxembourgish company Bidibul Productions and could potentially make a bid to be Luxembourg’s entry.
French insiders tell Deadline, however, that the latter country is not seen as having enough clout on the international cinema scene for such a move to make sense.
Others have also suggested that the film’s U.S. distributor Neon should rather position the work in the main Academy Awards categories, as it did successfully for Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall after it was shutout of being France’s candidate for the 2024 Oscars.
Other candidates
All of the other three films in the running also world premiered in Cannes.
Feature animation Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, which is produced by Natalie Portman, was acquired by Neon for North America out of Cannes.
It revolves around 10 year old time-traveling, rainbow-child Arco, who lives in the distant future of 2932, but gets trapped in 2075 when his maiden flight does not go to plan. Iris witnesses his fall and comes to his rescue, making it her mission to get him home.
Neon unveiled a starry English-language cast, featuring Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Flea, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, and Andy Samberg, for the film which opens in U.S. cinemas on November 14.
LGBT-themed drama Little Sister is Hafsia Herzi’s third film and revolves 17-year-old Fatima, who is grappling with her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family. Strand Releasing has U.S. rights.
A Private Life stars Jodie Foster stars as renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner who mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.
She is joined in the cast by Auteuil (Farewell, Mr Haffman) and Efira (Other People’s Children), Mathieu Amalric (Serpent’s Path), Vincent Lacoste (Lost Illusions) and Luana Bajrami (Portrait of a Lady On Fire).
Foster, who speaks fluent French, has appeared in a handful of French-language films, but Vie Privée marks her first French-language role in two decades after Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s wartime romance A Very Long Engagement in 2005. Sony Pictures Classics has North American rights.
Tumultuous 2025 campaign
Last year’s French candidate, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez experienced a tumultuous awards campaign over the course of the fall of 2024 and early 2025.
The film started out as one of season’s hot favorites, garnering a near-record 13 nominations, including in the Best International Feature Film category.
Its Oscar campaign hit the rails after homophobic and racist social media posts by the film’s star Karla Sofía Gascon dating back to the early 2020s, were unveiled in early 2025. In the backdrop, the film also weathered criticisms over its portrayal of Mexico and transpeople.
After making it onto the Best International Feature Film List, Emilia Pérez lost out in the category to Brazilian entry I’m Still Here by Walter Salles, but clinched Oscars for Best Music and Best Adapted Screenplay.
France last won the international film Oscar with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993.
Prior to Emila Pérez, Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables was the last French film to make it through to the final nomination stage in 2020, while Alice Diop’s Saint Omer and Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste Of Things made it onto the shortlist.
The country’s filmmakers have also enjoyed success outside of the Best International Feature Film category, with Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall enjoying a buzzy 2023-24 season and then winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
The deadline for submission to the Best International Feature Film category of the 98th Academy Awards is October 1.
AMPAS will unveil the 15-film shortlist in the category on December 16. The five nominees in the category will be announced on January 22, 2026, ahead of the award ceremony on March 15.
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