Quebec Film Chosen By Canada For Oscar Race

MONSIEUR LAZHAR, an immigrant drama by Quebec-based director Philippe Falardeau, has been chosen to represent Canada in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar competition. The selection follows the high profile win for the film as Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. The dramatic film tells the story of Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, who is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir’s painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere’s play, the film depicts the encounter between two distant worlds. At its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, the film picked up two major prizes. It has also been announced as the Opening Night Gala for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival next month.

FFT Webmaster

The FFT Webmaster use displays whenever an article has multiple authors. It also pops up on articles from old versions of Film Festival Today. The original author byline might be missing! In that case, if you are the author of such an article and see this bio instead of your own, please send us an email. Some of our contributors that might be missing bylines are: Brad Balfour, Laura Blum, and Sandy Mandelberger, among others.