Telefilm Canada announced Tuesday Universal Language from writer and director Matthew Rankin and producer Sylvain Corbeil 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.
Produced by Corbeil’s Metafilms, Universal Language is co-written by Rankin, Pirouz Nemati and Ila Firouzabadi and is being distributed in Canada by Maison 4:3. International sales are handled by Oscilloscope Laboratories.
The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10. The film’s cast includes Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Mani Soleymanlou, Nemati, Rankin and Firouzabadi.
“Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a large sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-absurd walking tour of Winnipeg monuments and historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother. Time, geography and identities crossfade, interweave and collide into a surreal comedy of misdirection,” reads a synopsis in a Telefilm press release.
“Structured like a Venn diagram — at the point of confluence between Jacques Tati and Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker Trilogy — Universal Language is at once a diary film, an absurdist city symphony and a welling-up of confinement-era emotion exploring the mysterious interzone where one person ends and the rest of the world begins. An elusive, half remembered dream of home, solitude, our responsibilities to others and the wild turkeys that haunt us.”
As the appointed non-voting chair of the committee, Telefilm Canada organizes the annual pan-Canadian Selection Committee for Canada’s submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards, the press release explains.
This year, 26 films were submitted for consideration as Canada’s choice. The vote was determined by a pan-Canadian committee of industry organizations and guilds, as well as filmmakers and industry professionals appointed to represent organizations. The committee met Tuesday morning to select the film.
“This year’s film submissions brilliantly showcase the exceptional talent that makes Canada shine. Universal Language by director Matthew Rankin has been selected by a jury of industry peers to represent Canada in the race for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film,” Julie Roy, executive director and CEO of Telefilm Canada, said in a statement. “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. That’s the power of cinema! We wish Matthew Rankin, Sylvain Corbeil and the entire creative team the best of luck!”
“We are amazed by this improbable selection and we will do our very best to represent Canada at the Oscars,” Rankin said in the press release. “Universal Language is an expression of very great collective joy between myself and my friends Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi, Sylvain Corbeil and all the beautiful and hilarious people who created this strange, triangle-shaped, Irano-Winnipego-Québécois brain which became our film, beh naamé doosti (in the Name of Friendship).”
Nine countries have submitted their entries for the Best International Feature Film category so far, according to Telefilm’s press release. Last year, 88 countries submitted entries. The deadline for country submissions is Oct. 2.
The Academy will announce its shortlist of 15 titles selected to move forward on Dec. 17. The Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025.
Image courtesy of Telefilm Canada
