While Canada submits a Canadian film for the Best International Feature Film each Oscars season, occasionally we get a film in that category that also qualifies as a Canadian film. Such is the case with Carmen, Malta's entry into the Academy Awards.
Carmen stars British actor Natascha McElhone as a spinster who took care of her brother, who is a Roman Catholic priest. The film shows us what happens when she is now free to explore who she is as she nears 50.
Valerie Buhagiar is the writer and director. Buhagiar may be a familiar name to Canadian film fans for her roles in the road film trilogy from Bruce McDonald: Roadkill (1989) and Highway 61 (1991).
Carmen is reportedly based on the Buhagiar's own aunt Rita. The cast also includes Steven Love, Michaela Farrugia, Peter Galea, Mikhail Basmadjian, Henry Zammit Cordina, and Richard Clarkin.
Buhagiar has directed a few shorts and full-length films. The previous full-length films were The Passion of Rita Camilleri (1993), The Anniversary (2014), and It's Hard to Be Human (2018).
Malta has only submitted 2 previous films in this category. Last year, Luzzu from director Alex Camilleri was the country's nominee. The first film that Malta submitted was Simshar by Rebecca Cremona in 2014.
In Darkness | W ciemności was the only Canadian film to reach the Top 5 Academy Awards that wasn't submitted by Canada. The Poland entry for the 2011 season, a co-production with Germany and Canada, competed at the same Oscars as Monsieur Lazhar in the ceremony on February 26, 2012.
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The film has won a few awards. Diego Guijarro won the award for Best Cinematography at the 2021 Whistler Film Festival. Carmen won Best Film at the 2022 Canadian Film Festival in Toronto.
Carmen had a brief theatrical release and is available on demand.
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.
video credit: YouTube/whistlerfilm
photo credit: Carmen
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