And the film representing Canada in the race for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Oscars is...DRUNKEN BIRDS (Les oiseaux ivres)! Congratulations to the team! 🔥🔥🔥https://t.co/ATpeRmHLYi #Oscars2022 #CdnFilm #Proud pic.twitter.com/KSpdU2EbBF
— Telefilm Canada (@Telefilm_Canada) October 4, 2021
Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds is Canada's entry to the 94th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. The Ivan Grbovic film (directed, co-written with Sara Mishara) played at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will open in select Canadian theatres on October 15.
Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds "is a film with which we wanted to celebrate the power of film, while taking the audience on a journey through the beauty, absurdity and injustice of our lives today. We would like to share this honour with the rest of the film team, but also with the seasonal workers who leave their families every year to better their lives." Grbovic said in a statement.
Jorge Antonio Guerrero (Roma) plays Willy, a Mexican drug runner going to Quebec to look for his girlfriend Marlena (Yoshira Escárrega). Willy ends up working on a farm in the Montérégie region.
2021 TIFF Canadian film preview
The film does have mostly Canadian actors including Hélène Florent (Café de Flore, Maria Chapdelaine), Claude Legault (19-2), Marine Johnson (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes | The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches), Maxime Dumontier, and Amaryllis Tremblay (Jeune Juliette).
The film is in French and Spanish with additional dialogue in English and Mandarin. As we learned last year from Funny Boy, a film can have English, just not the majority of the dialogue in English.
This is the second feature film for Grbovic. His feature film debut was Roméo Onze | Romeo Eleven. He received Jutra Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2013 Jutra Awards. Like Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds, Grbovic directed and co-wrote that film with Sara Mishara.
Not taking away from this year's selection in the slightest, but ideally Canada should have an Indigenous film on the world stage in this category for the Academy Awards. The majority of recent Indigenous films have been in English and would be ineligible.
Yes, getting funding for films made in Indigenous languages has been difficult. Yes, we understand the dynamic that has been in place.
2021 TIFF wrapup
2021 TIFF preview
2021 TIFF Rising Stars
Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO Christa Dickenson noted that 10 films were submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee. We never learn the competition of the eventual selection.
Will Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds be in the conversation for the shortlist? Is the story powerful enough to go up against powerhouses such as Denmark? The hope is this film is a stronger contender than either of the Canadian films submitted last year for the Oscars. A film consistently strong from start to finish would be an improvement over recent submissions.
The measure of the strength of the Canadian nominee depends on the other nominated films.
Canada selects 14 Jours, 12 Nuits for the Best International Feature Film for the Oscars
Funny Boy disqualified as Canada entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars
Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy is Canada's Oscars selection
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The 3-year streak of Canadian films that made the top 5 cut (with the film year) were:
- Incendies (Denis Villeneuve) 2010
- Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau) 2011
- Rebelle | War Witch (Kim Nguyen) 2012
The last Canadian film to make the shortlist was Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan. That was 5 years ago.
The only Canadian film to win in this category: The Barbarian Invasions | Les Invasions barbares from Denys Arcand.
Your humble narrator has seen every Canadian film contender since 1997 (film year) with 2 exceptions:
- Emporte-moi | Set Me Free Léa Pool (1999)
- Un crabe dans la tête André Turpin (2002)
The 15 shortlist finalists will be known on December 21. We will know the final 5 nominees on February 8, same time as the rest of the nominations. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27.
Twitter capture: @Telefilm_Canada
photos credit: Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds film
video credit: YouTube/Les Films Opale
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