Eternal Spring (長春) has been selected as Canada's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards!
— Telefilm Canada (@Telefilm_Canada) August 24, 2022
The animated documentary is a tale of determination to speak up for political and religious freedoms.@TheAcademy @JasonLoftus @loftyskydocs pic.twitter.com/vEDtpV5sjD
We usually have to wait for the end of the Toronto International Film Festival to find out which film Telefilm Canada picked for the Academy Awards. Telefilm Canada made an early selection for the Oscars.
Eternal Spring is Canada's submission for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. The film is an animated documentary on speaking up for political and religious freedoms in China.
Jason Loftus is the writer/director of the film based around the animation of Chinese artist Daxiong. The focus of Eternal Spring is on "Falun Gong's 2002 hijacking of broadcast television stations in Changchun, and China's continued repression of ethnic and religious minority groups."
“This venture represents an exceptional opportunity for Eternal Spring to reach new audiences and offers a golden opportunity to showcase the high quality of Canadian filmmaking," said Christa Dickenson, Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO, in a press release.
The film was one of 16 contenders submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee at Telefilm Canada.
Eternal Spring will run at several international festivals. The film will have a release across Canada on September 23 and October 14 in the United States. The film is not playing at the upcoming 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Eternal Spring won the Hot Docs Audience Award (most popular festival film) and the Rogers Audience Award (most popular Canadian film) at the 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Canadian film review: Les Oiseaux ivres | Drunken Birds
Les Oiseaux Ivres misses the Oscars shortlist cut for Best International Feature Film
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Eternal Spring is the 4th Canadian film nominated in this category where the primary language is not French: Une histoire inventée | An Imaginary Tale in a made up language (1990); Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner in Inuktitut (2001); and Water in Hindi (2006). The new submission is in Mandarin with some English.
The film is the first from Canada in this category to be a documentary as well as animated. The obvious comparison is Flee from Denmark in last year's Oscars race where the film was the first nominated in these 3 categories: Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Animated Feature.
The last Canadian film to even make the shortlist was Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan (2016).
We will know the Oscars shortlist of 15 films on December 21. The list of 5 official nominees comes out on January 24, 2023. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12, 2023.
Twitter capture: @Telefilm_Canada
video credit: YouTube/Elements of Madness
photo credit: Eternal Spring
Comments