Romania has picked its Oscar contender, selecting Cristian Mungiu‘s Fjord starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan to be its official selection for the 99th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature race.
In the drama about progressive politics, religious faith, and the limits of tolerance, Reinsve and Stan play two fundamentalist parents who relocate from Romania to a small Norwegian village, only to find themselves accused of child abuse, and forced to defend their beliefs, and strict parenting style, in court. The film is in Romanian and Norwegian with substantial portions in English.
Reinsve, hot off her box office success with horror sensation Backrooms, starred in this year’s Best International Feature winner, Joachim Trier’s Norwegian melodrama Sentimental Value.
Fjord premiered in Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or for best film. Neon snatched up the film for domestic release ahead of the festival. Under new Academy rules, the Palme d’Or win meant Fjord received automatic entry qualification for the Best International Feature category, whether Romania chose to pick it or not.
The film’s star power and its hot-button themes, as well as the Palme d’Or prestige, could help Mungiu secure his first-ever Oscar nomination. The Romanian director won the Palme d’Or back to 2007 victory with his breakout 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but that film was not put forward for the Academy Awards, triggering an outcry. His 2012 feature Beyond the Hills was Romania’s official Oscar pick and it made the shortlist, but did not secure a nomination. Fjord looks like a strong contender in this season’s race, not just for Best International Feature but in other categories, particularly Best Original Screenplay.
