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OSCARS 2013 Belgium

Our Children to represent Belgium in the race for an Oscar nomination

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- Joachim Lafosse's Our Children is to represent Belgium in the race for an Oscar nomination. For the third time in three years, it's a Versus Production.

A "mixed" jury of professionals from the French-speaking and Flemish-speaking audiovisual sector met on Friday to select the feature film to have the honour to represent Belgium in the race for a nomination for the next Oscar for best film in a foreign language. It came as no great surprise that the jury chose Joachim Lafosse's Our Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile
]
. From the outset, the film seemed to bring together the obvious qualities required to compete for a nomination. Our Children is an excellent film, its cast is strong and seductive, and its theme is both shocking and universal. The film also enjoyed good press coverage when it was selected for Cannes. We could just imagine Emilie Dequenne's great performance (for which she won Best Actress at Un Certain Regard and most probably will also win other awards) seducing the Film Academy.

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For several years, there seems to have been a certain tacit alternation between Flemish-language and French-language films for this selection. While it was a tough choice between Michael Roskam's Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile
]
(which made it to the final five nominees last year) and the Dardenne brothers' The Kid with a Bike [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile
]
last year, it seems that this year the choice was more unanimous.

The selection may be a first for Lafosse, but it's not for Versus Production, for whom it's quite a strike, with three selections in three years in a row: Bouli Lanners' Eldorado [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
in 2008, Olivier Masset-Depasse's Illégal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile
]
in 2010, and now Our Children in 2012. Credit seems to go to the company's strong and fruitful policy of accompanying auteur filmmakers.

After being released in Belgium last May (a very competitive period) where it attracted over 30,000 cinema-goers, the film was then released in France at the end of the summer. It did well, and should top 150,000 admissions.

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(Translated from French)

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