France submits "Mustang" for foreign Oscar race

PanARMENIAN.Net - France has chosen Deniz Gamze Erguven’s critically-aclaimed debut “Mustang” to vie for a foreign-language Oscar nomination, Variety reports.

The socially-engaged movie portrays the youth of five sisters who are raised in a conservative household in Turkey. Winner of Directors’ Fortnight’s Europa Cinemas nod, “Mustang” highlights the conditions of women in contemporary Turkey.

The movie, which is led-produced by Charles Gilibert’s CG Cinema, was chosen by a selection committee comprising Cannes’ artistic director Thierry Fremaux, Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”), film body UniFrance’s president Jean-Paul Salome, French Academy president Alain Terzian, Cinematheque Francaise director Serge Toubiana and thesps Nathalie Baye (“Laurence Anyways”) and Melanie Laurent (“By the Sea”).

Repped by Paris-based Kinology, the movie was acquired by Cohen Media Group for the U.S. after its applauded Directors’ Fortnight premiere.

“Mustang” beat out Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winning “Dheepan,” Stephane Brize’s “The Measure of a Man” which won its star Vincent Lindon the best actor nod in Cannes, Catherine Corsini’s “Summertime” which premiered in Toronto, and Xavier Giannoli’s “Marguerite.”

Audiard’s “A Prophet” is the last French candidate to have earned a foreign-language Oscar nomination in 2010.