Luxembourg's National Selection Committee for the Academy Awards (Oscars) today revealed that director Donato Rotunno's 'Baby(A)lone' has been chosen to represent the Grand Duchy in the category of 'Best Foreign Language Film Award' at the 88th edition of the Academy Awards.
This is the first phase of two, whereby national film bodies recommend foreign language films to the Academy (the long list); the next phase is when the Academy announces the short list of all nominations from which the winners will be announced at the Oscars Ceremony on 28 February 2016.
The film is an adaptation of the novel by 'Amok' by Tullio Forgiarini and represents a co-production between Luxembourg's Iris Productions and production company Iris Films of Belgium. The story follows the lives of X (Joshua Defays) and Shirley (Charlotte Elsen), who at just 14 and 13 years old, respectively, have already experienced psychological and physical trauma in their lives. These two children, forced to act as adults before their time, are living in the heart of modern Europe, but for them this is a Europe with nothing to offer them but violence, drugs and pornography. They each seek in one another that which they so desperately need: childish moments of happiness and love.
Both characters are portrayed by Luxembourgish actors, and the supporting roles of Johnny (Etienne Halsdorf), Nathalie (Gintare Parulyte) and Sandra (Fabienne Hollwege) were also taken up by young acting talent of the Grand Duchy.
The pressure will be on for 'Baby(A)lone' contributors at the 88th Academy Awards after Franco-Luxembourg production 'Mr Hublot' won its creators, Laurent Witz and Alexander Espigares, an Oscar for short film in 2014, representing a first for the Grand Duchy.
In addition, Iris Productions has been encountering great success with another of its films, 'Sunset Song' by Terence Davies, which was recently selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival in September.
The National Selection Committee for the Oscars consisted of 7 representatives of Luxembourg's audiovisual sector:
- Nicole Dahlen, Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg
- Guy Daleiden, National Support Fund for Audiovisual Production
- Claude Lahr, The Association of filmmakers and scriptwriters (LARS)
- Paul Lesch, University of Luxembourg
- Carlo Thiel, Luxembourg Association of Audiovisual Technicians (ALTA)
- Viviane Thill, National Audiovisual Centre (NAC)
- Laurent Witz, Luxembourg Union of audiovisual production (ULPA)
Nominations for 'Best Foreign Film' are due to be announced on Thursday 14 January 2015.
Photo by Baby(A)Lone
