Shortlisted, The Passion of Dodin Bouffant remains in the Oscar race

The honor of the CNC is safe. At least until the end of January. The Passion of Dodin Bouffant by Tran Anh Hung, which the institution preferred to Justine Triet's Palme d'Or Anatomy of a Fall, is still in the running to obtain an Oscar nomination for best international film on January 23 . The culinary epic, with Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel in the kitchen, is one of the 15 preselected films. On January 23, only five of them will be selected and will be able to hope to leave with the statuette, during the ceremony on March 10.

The absence from this list of The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, prize for directing at Cannes, would have been a scathing disavowal for the CNC, whose lack of support for Anatomy of a Fall appears as a shot against its camp. Even petty revenge on the part of a selection committee wishing to curry favor with the ministry. Some interpret this non-selection as a sanction against Justine Triet, whose very critical speech in Cannes against the government's cultural policy did not pass.

The position of the CNC appears all the more incomprehensible when viewed from Hollywood (judging by the questions at the press conference) as Anatomy of a Fall enjoys public and critical success internationally and across the Atlantic. The Palme d'Or has a solid American box office (3.7 million receipts) and has won numerous awards (Gotham Awards, National Board Of Review, critical circles).

At the European Oscars in early December in Berlin, this acid x-ray of the couple walked away with six statuettes. Anatomy of a Fall also performed well at the Golden Globes. The foreign press association awarded him four nominations compared to zero for Dodin Bouffant's little dishes. The nomination of Anatomy of a Fall in the regular Oscar categories no longer seems an unattainable dream. The trial film could, like Parasite, slip into the categories of best film, direction, screenplay and actress for Sandra Hüller.

The road from The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, which is released in the United States on February 14, to an Oscar nomination promises to be more difficult. The competition will be tough with The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer, who revisits the hell of the Shoah through his, the Spanish disaster film The Circle of Snows, the melancholy Finnish romance Dead Leaves, the dive into National Education German version of The Teacher's Room and the Scandinavian epics Godland (Iceland) and The King's Lang (Denmark).

This pre-selection process was also at work in other Oscar categories. Including documentary, soundtrack, song, special effects, makeup, sound, documentary. Overrepresented in the song section, Barbie was full with five preselections. But to everyone's surprise, Greta Gerwig's comedy was not selected for the makeup and special effects sections. Same disappointment for Oppenheimer in this last category unlike Napoleon by Ridley Scott.

List of fifteen films eligible for nomination for the Academy Award for Best International Film:

- Amerikatsi - Armenia- The monk with the rifle - Bhutan- King's Land - Denmark- The dead leaves - Finland- The passion of Dodin Bouffant - France- The teachers' room - Germany- Godland - Iceland- I, Captain - Italy- Perfect Days - Japan- Totem - Mexico- The mother of all lies - Morocco- The circle of snows - Spain- Olfa's daughters - Tunisia- 20 Days in Mariupol - Ukraine- The area of ​​interest - United Kingdom