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OSCARS 2016 France

Mustang continues its wild ride

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- The nomination for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film is another jewel in the crown of Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature debut as it presses on with its adventure

Mustang continues its wild ride
Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

The selection committee tasked with choosing the French candidate for the 2016 edition of the Oscars has pulled off a successful gamble. Its bold choice of a Turkish-language French executive-produced film – which is also a feature debut – has been crowned with glory: Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile
]
is now one of the five hopefuls nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film, which will be handed out on 28 February. The nomination was hailed by CNC president Frédérique Bredin: “This is a terrific recognition of this bright film that symbolises a French film industry that is open to the whole world.” Interestingly, Black Orpheus by Marcel Camus, the previous French candidate for the Oscar that was not in the French language, won the statuette in 1960, and the last French film to have added its name to the list of winners in this category was Indochine by Régis Wargnier, in 1993.

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Produced by Charles Gillibert for Paris-based outfit CG Cinéma and co-produced by Turkey and Germany, Mustang was backed by such sources as the CNC’s World Cinema Support and the French-German co-production Mini-Treaty. Having already been sold all around the world by Kinology, the feature has so far drawn in 457,000 viewers in France (where it is distributed by Ad Vitam), a figure that is sure to increase further, as the film has been accepted into the selection of the 25 titles comprising the "UGC Must-sees" line-up (13-19 January in the 22 multiplexes owned by the French group) and the 16 works screening at the 19th Télérama Festival (20-26 January in more than 300 arthouse theatres all over France).

The French film industry also takes pride of place in the list of the nominations for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film through three other international sales agents, as Films Distribution can boast Son of Saul [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
film profile
]
by Hungary’s Laszlo Nemes (distributed in France by Ad Vitam) on its slate, while its German subsidiary Films Boutique has the Colombian feature Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra (distributed in France by Diaphana), and StudioCanal has the Danish title A War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tobias Lindholm
film profile
]
by Tobias Lindholm (which the French group will distribute in the country’s theatres at a later date).

Another French production is among the hopefuls for the upcoming Oscars: Ave Maria by Palestinian director Basil Khalil. Produced by Paris-based outfit Incognito Films and co-produced by German company Flying Moon Filmproduktion, the film, which was unveiled in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, will be setting its sights on the famous Hollywood trophy in the Best Short Film (Live Action) category.

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(Translated from French)

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