Universal Language | Une langue universelle is the first Canadian film in what is now the Best International Feature Film to reach the Academy Awards shortlist since Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan (2016).
Let's look at all the contenders from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its 15-film shortlist for Best International Feature Film.
| 2025 Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Film | ||||||||||||||||
| Brazil | I'm Still Here | ||||||||||||||||
| Canada | Universal Language | ||||||||||||||||
| Czech Republic | Waves | ||||||||||||||||
| Denmark | The Girl with the Needle | ||||||||||||||||
| France | Emilia Pérez | ||||||||||||||||
| Germany | The Seed of the Sacred Fig | ||||||||||||||||
| Iceland | Touch | ||||||||||||||||
| Ireland | Kneecap | ||||||||||||||||
| Italy | Vermiglio | ||||||||||||||||
| Latvia | Flow | ||||||||||||||||
| Norway | Armand | ||||||||||||||||
| Palestine | From Ground Zero | ||||||||||||||||
| Senegal | Dahomey | ||||||||||||||||
| Thailand | How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies | ||||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom | Santosh | ||||||||||||||||
Your humble narrator has seen 4 of these films: Universal Language (Canada); The Girl with the Needle (Denmark); The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany); and Armand (Norway).
The plan is to watch Emilia Pérez (France) on Netflix. Sorry I missed Flow (Latvia) at the 2024 Windsor International Film Festival.
To my surprise, I haven't seen any other country's entries in this category that are outside the shortlist. I am curious about some of these entries, but no one film leaps into the top spot.
Presenting the 97th #Oscars shortlists in 10 award categories: https://t.co/Ite500TEEC
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) December 17, 2024
Find out who will be nominated on January 17th, and tune into @ABCNetwork and @Hulu to watch the Oscars LIVE on Sunday, March 2nd at 7e/4p. pic.twitter.com/lzc9xViWC7
Sugarcane made the shortlist for Documentary Feature Film. The documentary on residential schools has been in theatres in the United States and Canada. Americans can watch the film on Hulu.
Canadian film review: Sugarcane
The other documentaries on the shortlist are: The Bibi Files; Black Box Diaries; Dahomey; Daughters; Eno; Frida; Hollywoodgate; No Other Land; Porcelain War; Queendom; The Remarkable Life of Ibelin; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat; Union; and Will & Harper.
Dahomey is also nominated for Best International Feature Film. We saw Eno and was underwhelmed by the film. The clips are selected randomly with each viewing and perhaps we got the less than exciting clips.
Vancouver native Natalie Rae co-directed Daughters while Toronto's Brett Story co-directed Union.
Torill Kove's Maybe Elephants made the shortlist for Animated Short Film.
Great Canadian🇨🇦 films make #Oscars shortlists: Torill Kove’s NFB animation “Maybe Elephants,” Emily Kassie’s and Julian Brave NoiseCat’s doc “Sugarcane,” and Matthew Rankin’s absurd comedy “Universal Language.” Bravo and bonne chance! pic.twitter.com/AWtHxo6eU3
— Peter Howell 🖊 (@peterhowellfilm) December 17, 2024
Canadian film review: Universal Language
Universal Language is Canada's entry into the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
Matthew Rankin's Universal Language combines classic Iranian cinema with Winnipeg (Q with Tom Power — CBC Radio)
2024 TIFF Canadian film preview
Matthew Rankin's new film was a highlight at Cannes 2024
| Canada's Oscar entries of note for Best International Feature Film | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Status | |||||||||||||||
| 1986 | The Decline of the American Empire | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 1989 | Jesus of Montréal | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 2003 | The Barbarian Invasions | Academy Award | |||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Water | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 2007 | Days of Darkness | Shortlist | |||||||||||||||
| 2008 | The Necessities of Life | Shortlist | |||||||||||||||
| 2010 | Incendies | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 2011 | Monsieur Lazhar | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 2012 | War Witch | Nominated | |||||||||||||||
| 2016 | It's Only the End of the World | Shortlist | |||||||||||||||
| 2024 | Universal Language | TBD | |||||||||||||||
As we noted, there has been a gap since the last Canadian film made the shortlist. Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan looked like a French film instead of a French-Canadian film. You could easily argue that Universal Language is the first Canadian film to make the shortlist that has Canada on the screen since Monsieur Lazhar.
Before this year, only 2 films in the last 7 years have been the Academy Awards nominee and made the TIFF Top Ten list: Antigone (2019) and Drunken Birds | Les Oiseaux ivres (2021). We won't know the TIFF list until 2025 yet we can't imagine the list doesn't include Universal Language.
The film is one of 3 finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.
Looking back at the last 20 Canada Oscars entries for international films
Looking back at Canada's Oscars entries for international films
Canadian film notebook: 2025 Independent Spirit Awards and Golden Globes nominations
While we covered some of the "foreign language" film nominees, here are the full lists from the 3 other major sources.
The Independent Spirit Awards — Best International Film
- All We Imagine as Light (France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Payal Kapadia
- Black Dog (China) Guan Hu
- Flow (Latvia, France, Belgium) Gints Zilbalodis
- Green Border (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium) Agnieszka Holland
- Hard Truths (United Kingdom) Mike Leigh
The Golden Globes — Best Motion Picture: Non-English Language
All We Imagine As Light (USA/France/India)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Girl With The Needle (Poland/Sweden/Denmark)
I'm Still Here (Brazil)
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (USA/Germany)
Vermiglio (Italy)
The Critics Choice Awards — Best Foreign Language Film
All We Imagine as Light
Emilia Pérez
Flow
I'm Still Here
Kneecap
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Kneecap is the only new film (to us). The film is Ireland's entry into the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Kneecap is about an Irish hip-hop trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Don't recall any of these lists featuring a Canadian film in any way shape or form in recent memory.
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Your humble narrator has seen the last 28 Canadian entries in the Best International Feature Film category, including Universal Language | Une langue universelle.
I have seen 30 of the last 33 nominees. The most recent one I haven't seen is Not Me! | Sous-Sol from the Oscars in 1997. The other films in that stretch that we have not seen are My Friend Max | Mon Amie Max (Michel Brault) from 1994 and The Confessional (Robert Lepage) in 1995. Kristin Scott Thomas, yes that person, was in the Robert Lepage film.
We saw the previous 2 entries: Léolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon) from 1992 and The Sex of the Stars | Le sexe des étoiles (Paule Baillargeon) from 1993.
The Oscars nominations get released on January 17 with the Academy Awards ceremony on March 2.
photo credit: Universal Language | Une langue universelle
Twitter captures: @TheAcademy; @peterhowellfilm
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