Canada Picks Berlin Prize-Winner 'Nina Roza' for Oscar International Feature Race
Canada has selected Nina Roza, a festival prize-winner from Berlin, as its contender for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards (The Hollywood Reporter).
The film was written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, a Quebec film-maker whose debut feature A Colony won the Crystal Bear for best film in the Berlinale Generation Kplus strand in 2019 (Screen Daily). Nina Roza had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival — the Berlinale — where Dulude-De Celles received the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay (The Hollywood Reporter).
The story follows Mihail, an art expert who fled Bulgaria three decades earlier and returns to authenticate the work of Nina, an eight-year-old Bulgarian artist. The cast includes Galin Stoev, Sofia Stanina, Ekaterina Stanina, Michelle Tzontchev, Christian Bégin and Chiara Caselli (The Hollywood Reporter). Colonelle Films produced the project (Deadline).
Nina Roza arrived at Berlin with festival momentum already behind it. The film led the winners at the Locarno Pro awards in August 2025 (Deadline). It had been selected by Telefilm Canada for Locarno Film Festival's First Look programme, where Canada was the focus country with over 30 film submissions (Telefilm Canada).
The Best International Feature Film category — formerly called Best Foreign Language Film — honours feature-length films produced outside the United States, each submitted by a single country. Submissions from around the world are narrowed to a 15-film shortlist before five nominees are chosen.
For Nina Roza, the calendar is now set. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the 15-film shortlist on 15 December, with the five nominees revealed on 21 January 2027. The 99th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on 14 March 2027 (The Hollywood Reporter).
Dulude-De Celles's path from the Generation Kplus youth strand in 2019 to the main Berlinale competition and a Silver Bear in 2026 gives the submission a festival pedigree that voters often notice. Whether that translates into a nomination is a question for the Academy's international branch — and a story for March.
