By receiving five Oscar nominations, including one in the Best Film category, “Anatomy of a Fall” becomes the tenth feature film in the running for the supreme trophy. But do you know the others named in the History of the ceremony?
The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards are now known. And the big favorite, without too much surprise, is called Oppenheimer: the feature film by Christopher Nolan takes the lead with thirteen nominations, ahead of Poor Creatures (eleven), Killers of the Flower Moon (ten) or even Barbie (eight), his opponent at the box office last summer.
But the sensation comes to us from France. Not The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, not selected among the five finalists for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but Anatomy of a Fall. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or offers five nominations, and competes in the main categories, namely Best Film and Best Direction, where the filmmaker is the only woman in the running this year.
Anatomy of a Fall thus becomes the tenth French feature film (or co-produced by France) to be able to compete for the Oscar for Best Film in the space of 85 years. And it joins these opuses:
If Anatomy of a Fall were to surprise and win the Oscar for Best Picture, it would become the third feature film on this list to do so, after The Artist and CODA.
As for filmmakers, Justine Triet becomes the fourteenth French (or dual national) nominated for the Oscar for Best Director. But the first woman, after:
- Jean Renoir (The Man from the South, 1946)
- Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman, 1967)
- Costa-Gavras (Z, 1970)
- François Truffaut (American Night, 1975)
- Roman Polanski (Chinatown, 1975)
- Edouard Molinaro (La Cage aux Folles, 1980)
- Roman Polanski (Tess, 1981)
- Louis Malle (Atlantic City, 1982)
- Roland Joffé (The Tear, 1985)
- Roland Joffé (Mission, 1987)
- Roman Polanski (The Pianist, 2003)
- Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist, 2012)
- Damien Chazelle (La La Land, 2017)
In the event of victory, Justine Triet would become the fourth French filmmaker (in a row, moreover) to win this statuette for Best Director, after Roman Polanski (for The Pianist), Michel Hazanavicius and the Franco-American Damien Chazelle.
Will Oppenheimer live up to his status? Or can Anatomy of a Fall create a surprise by winning the two major Oscars after the Palme d’Or, like Parasite in 2020? Response on the night of March 10 to 11.