Les Misérables , the feature film Ladj Ly on the police violence in the suburbs, is the candidate of France for the Oscar for best foreign film. The national cinema Centre (CNC) announced on Friday that the film had been selected by the committee appointed to decide between three pre-selected to defend the colours of the French cinema on the 9th of February next, at Los Angeles .
Composed of producers, exporters, directors, and three ex-officio members, including Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the Cannes film Festival, Alain Terzian, president of the Academy of the Caesars, and Serge Toubiana, president of Unifrance, the commission had to choose between Les Misérables , Portrait of the girl on fire Céline Sciamma – story of a romance forbidden between two women in the Eighteenth century, and Proxima by Alice Winocour, with Eva Green in astronaut.
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The first feature-length film of fiction, Ladj Ly, the son of garbage man and a mother in the home of malian origin, was therefore chosen. Les Misérables showcases the suburb of Montfermeil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, where the director was born and still lives. Through the fate of Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), a police officer who arrives at the brigade anti-crime in the city, the film is about a police action that escalates.
The Oscar still far
A history devoid of manichaeism and prejudice. “ Les Misérables , these are as well the inhabitants of the districts as the police. This world of misery is for everyone. I know it by heart the police. I can put myself in their place”, told the Figaro Ladj Ly at the end of the first projection. The film will be released in France on November 20, and Amazon has acquired the rights to the United States.
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But the road to the Oscar for best international film is still long: the country submit their choice to the Academy of the Oscars, which publishes a first list of films selected in December. In January 2020, the five contenders for the oscar in the best foreign film are finally known.
France has not won the prestigious statuette since 1993 and the coronation of Indochina , Régis Wargnier, with Catherine Deneuve. In 2019, it is Roma Alfonso Cuaron who has been rewarded.
Les Misérables will have a hard time to do so, but the film has already been dubbed by critics in France and abroad. It is sold in twenty territories around the world. Of what to give to the film of the prospects more promising than miserable.
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