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“For the last several years, Canadian cinema has made waves at the Oscars with strong and audacious films,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “The 2015 Academy Awards is just as promising because the Oscar selection committee has chosen Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, which has had a brilliant career since its release. Canada has had five films in nomination for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in five years, which bodes well for Mommy, a work that has profoundly moved Canadian and international audiences. There’s no question that members of the Academy will be moved by the film as well.”
Nancy Grant, the film’s producer at Metafilms, added: “We are honoured and proud to represent Canada in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. We have high expectations for Mommy and we hope that it goes all the way.”
Mommy has been a favourite of audiences and critics and has already been sold for distribution to more than 50 countries as it continues to pursue its career on the festival circuit. The film was hailed at a number of international festivals, including Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Sydney, Angoulême and Telluride, before its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. Mommy is also screening at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, which opens yesterday, along with more than 15 festivals in the next two months.
Mommy is a game-changer for a career that has been marked by passion, daring and creativity since its debut. From I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère) in 2009, which was submitted to the Academy by Canada for the Oscars in 2010, Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires) in 2010, Laurence Anyways in 2012 and Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme) in 2013, and now to Mommy, Xavier Dolan’s work has spoken with a singular and compelling voice. At the young age of 25, Dolan’s unique talent has been recognized by over 45 Canadian and international awards.
Telefilm coordinates and chairs the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, which comprises 23 voting members from Canada’s film industry who represent major Canadian government agencies and national film industry associations. In 2013, a record 76 countries submitted a film for consideration as a possible nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Only one film per country is accepted, and the selected film must have been produced outside the United States, be primarily in a language other than English, and have been shown in a movie theatre for at least seven consecutive days in its country of origin between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014. A shortlist of nine films will be announced early January 2015, and on January 15, 2015, the Academy will subsequently announce the five films to be nominated in the category.
Click here to read more about Canadians and the Oscar. Click on the poster to watch a QuickTime movie trailer for Mommy, which is now playing in Québec.
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