France And The Best International Feature Film Category

For a long while, France was a mainstay in the Oscar category of Best Foreign Film, now called Best International Feature. Since the category was created in 1950, the country’s films have been nominated 40 times and won a quarter of those nominations. 

However, starting at the turn of the century the nominations for films from France were not as frequent and the country has not seen a win since 1992. This could be due to an expansion of many more countries exploring the art of film, but is also likely a result of an expansion of the Academy being far more diverse.  

The last four Oscar ceremonies have become especially notable, not just with France failing to receive a nomination, but with the potential reason why and whether or not a certain trend could be developing.  

The trouble with France and the Oscars started with their last nomination for a 2019 film called Les Misérables, a modern set film about police violence. The film lost the Oscar to Parasite (there was no possible film that could have beaten Parasite that year), but there was a lot of goodwill lost for France by not selecting Portrait of a Lady on Fire which, over time, has been considered an audience favorite.

In the next year, France selected Two of Us and missed out on a nomination as the film was fairly unknown and came out very early before the pandemic. This was a film with a queer love story at the center, leading people to wonder if this was a makeup selection after leaving out Portrait of a Lady on Fire the year before. It’s difficult to understand any strategy failings for 2020 as the Covid Oscars were difficult to hold a barometer to or have any deep analysis. 

In 2021, the film Titane won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and it was as brilliant as it was crazy, perhaps too crazy for the Oscars. France decided to take a risk that year by selecting it to be the film that they would submit for the International Film Category and they were punished by not even making the short list. This moment probably caused them to not take risks over the next two years as they selected Saint Omer the very next year, an impactful but straight down the line courtroom drama that led to France evading a nomination once again.

This past year might have been the most head scratching move that most likely and easily cost the country the Oscar. Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or this past year and, with the exception of Titane, every Palme d’or winner has been a Best Picture nominee since 2019’s Parasite. Anatomy of a Fall was also the front runner to several different nominations, including Best Actress, Screenplay and Director, with it overperforming at the Oscars with five nominations. However, France selected The Taste of Things for their feature pick this year, causing them to once again not receive a nomination. 

The Taste of Things wasn’t a poorly received film by any stretch of the imagination and was especially a critical hit, but it seemed obvious that Anatomy of a Fall would have been the more successful choice. There could have been a number of reasons behind not choosing it. It could be that it features a great deal of German and English, it could have been that the country did not want to select another court film after what happened with Saint Omer, or perhaps this film reflected poorly on France’s judicial system (a fascinating yet plausible conspiracy theory).

Anatomy of a Fall would have certainly been nominated for Best International Feature Film and would have stood a tremendous chance to win the category as both this film and the winner, The Zone of Interest, stood toe to toe with nominations. Anatomy of a Fall had the screenplay win, however, which could have easily pushed it over the edge. 

So what is the future for France and the Oscars? As someone who is not internationally minded until after Cannes or even toward the end of the year, it's difficult to make the prediction at this time, but the only certainty is that the country is due for at least a nomination.

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