Iran has selected In the Arms of the Tree as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.
Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation made the announcement this morning. IRNA, the country’s English-language news service, said the pick was made after “a 10-day review process.”
IRNA said a “nine-member selection committee” picked the film from a final selection process that included two other finalists. Those films Isatis, directed by Alireza Dehghan, and The Silent City, directed by Ahmad Bahrami.
Directed by Babak Lotfi Khajepasha, In the Arms of the Tree screened at the Shanghai International TV Festival and the Fajr Film Festival. The film’s official synopsis reads: In the Arms of the Tree follows the complex life crisis of Kimia and Farid, who have been married for twelve years and destroy the beautiful world of their children, children who know nothing but simplicity and kindness in life.
Submissions in the International Feature Film category have been heating up over the past week, with multiple countries announcing their picks. This past week France submitted Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez. The drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as cartel leader Emilia who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita (Saldana) to help her fake her death so she can live authentically as her true self. It premiered at Cannes, where it earned its four actresses – Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz – a collective Best Actress award, and also clinched the jury prize.
Norway has selected Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s Armand, starring Renata Reinsve. The drama was selected from a short list of three films that also included Erik Poppe’s psychological drama Quisling – The Final Days and Dag Johan Haugerud’s dark comedy Sex. Armand is the first feature of Ullmann Tøndel, who is the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. It world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard this year, becoming the first Norwegian film to win the Camera d’Or, for best first film across Official Selection and the parallel sections.
Notably, Germany selected Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig as its submission. This decision was taken by an independent jury of experts appointed by German Films, who looked at 13 films submitted for consideration. Rasoulof has been living in Germany ever since his dramatic flight from his native Iran in May, in the face of fresh threats of flogging and imprisonment from the country’s authoritarian Islamic Republic regime.
Check out some of the other entries on our list below.
