Winnipegger’s film picked for Oscar consideration

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg-born filmmaker Matthew Rankin is now an Oscar hopeful.

Universal Language, directed and co-written by Rankin, has been selected to represent Canada in the nomination process for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, to be held on March 2, 2025.

“I’m sort of flabbergasted; it’s a very unusual movie and not an obvious choice by any means,” Rankin said of his reaction to Tuesday’s announcement from Telefilm Canada. “And of course, I’m from Winnipeg, so any hubris I might have ever had has long since been beaten out of me.”

Universal Language was shot in Winnipeg and Montreal and premièred to glowing reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. Presented in French and Farsi, it portrays an alternate Winnipeg universe in which a growing Persian community is starting to make an indelible imprint on the city’s culture.

Rankin was doubly excited for his collaborators, which include friends Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi, Sylvain Corbeil, as well as cast and crew members from Winnipeg.

“I made this film with lots of people that I really love,” he said, speaking over the phone from his home in Montreal. “It’s a beautiful recognition of our work and we’ll do our best to represent Canada at that strange event.”

Rankin describes the Academy Awards as “billionaires giving each other gold statuettes.”

Since 1929, eight Canadian films have been official nominees in the international feature film category, most recently Rebelle by Kim Nguyen in 2013. Les Invasions barbares (2004) by Denys Arcand is the only Canadian film to have won the Oscar in this category.

“This year’s film submissions brilliantly showcase the exceptional talent that makes Canada shine,” Julie Roy, executive director and CEO of Telefilm Canada, said in a news release.

“This film is emblematic of our national cinematography: with the success it has enjoyed since its launch at Cannes, no matter what the language, it reaches audiences here and abroad.”

During its debut at Cannes, Rankin said, “I was trying to film the Winnipeg I love the most, its spaces and moods and absurdities, which owes a great debt to the material remnants of the long Steve Juba era, in which my late parents came of age,” he said, referring to the two-decade tenure of Mayor Stephen Juba between 1957 and 1977.

Universal Language will have its North American première at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sept. 10. A short list of the 15 international films selected to move forward by the Academy will be announced in December.

Its theatrical release is scheduled for late January 2025.

The selection was determined by a pan-Canadian committee co-ordinated by Telefilm Canada and made up of industry professionals, filmmakers, organizations and guilds. Twenty-six films were submitted for consideration as Canada’s Academy Award choice this year.

— With files from Randall King