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OSCARS 2018 Austria

Could it be a Happy End for Austria in Hollywood?

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- For the sixth time, Austria has put forward a Michael Haneke film for the nominations for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film

Could it be a Happy End for Austria in Hollywood?
Happy End by Michael Haneke

The Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film that was bestowed upon Amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile
]
in 2012 may have seemed like the perfect epilogue to a long string of entries for the Oscars nominations, but Happy End [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Michael Haneke
film profile
]
has just been added to the list of Michael Haneke films put forward by Austria to the Academy. As a matter of fact, it is the sixth such movie, after The Seventh Continent in 1989, Benny’s Video in 1992, The Piano Teacher in 2001, Hidden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile
]
in 2005 (which was disqualified on account of it not having been filmed in the official language of the country it was representing, but rather in French; the rule was abolished the following year in the wake of the controversy sparked by said disqualification) and the aforementioned Amour.

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The decision was made by a jury made up of members of the FAMA (the Austrian association for the film and music industries), which had to weigh up a total of six possible candidates.

Happy End reacquaints us with the characters from Amour (minus the titular love itself) and several of the common themes that run through the entirety of Haneke’s filmography. It relies heavily on ellipses as it coolly observes the patchy interactions and slow, silent downward spiral of a middle-class family in Calais, consisting of three generations – those of the patriarch (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant), the children (Isabelle Huppert and Mathieu Kassovitz) and the children’s children (German rising star Franz Rogowski and young actress Fantine Harduin) – and two servants. 

The film is a French-German-Austrian co-production (shot in French) involving Les Films du Losange (which is also in charge of its international sales), X Filme Creative Pool and Wega Film. Austria contributed a little over €2 million, or 14.95%, of the circa €13.5 million that the film cost to make.

The nominees for the 90th edition of the Oscars will be announced on 23 January. The awards ceremony will take place on 4 March in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.

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(Translated from French)

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