France's Oscar Dilemma: Should an Exiled Russian Filmmaker Carry the Tricolour?
France's Oscar selection committee faces an unusual question this September: should it send a Russian dissident's film — one not in French, and not about France — as its official entry for the 2027 Academy Awards?
The film is Minotaur, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, which won the Grand Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival (Festival de Cannes). A 140-minute co-production of France, Latvia and Germany, it is a remake of Claude Chabrol's 1969 marital drama that, in Zvyagintsev's hands, became a critique of corruption in Putin's Russia. The director used his Cannes acceptance speech to urge Putin to end the war, calling the theme "a matter of fate" (Reuters).
Russia will not submit it. Zvyagintsev lives in France under asylum, and no other country is realistically positioned to claim him. The film was largely financed and produced out of France by Charles Gillibert's CG Cinema and MK2 Films, which handles international sales. Mubi holds the US distribution rights. The French release is set for 14 October 2026 (Festival de Cannes).
A rule change adopted by the Academy in 2025 makes the path possible. Filmmakers granted asylum or refugee status can now be considered part of their adoptive country's film community — clearing the way for France to submit Zvyagintsev (Variety).
But Minotaur won the Grand Prize, not the Palme d'Or. A separate Oscar amendment auto-qualifies any film that wins the top prize at one of the six major festivals — Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Busan and Toronto — without needing a national committee's backing. That fix was proposed after France declined to select Anatomy of a Fall, which went on to earn five Oscar nominations and win original screenplay anyway. Because Minotaur took the second-tier prize, its Oscar fate still rests with the French committee, presided over by Charles Tesson, which is expected to meet on 10 September to shortlist as many as five films and reconvene on 16 September to choose the entry (Variety).
Some committee members are reluctant. They cite the same tension that surfaced last year, when France chose Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident over Richard Linklater's French-language Nouvelle Vague. Panahi's film scored an Oscar nomination, but the decision drew pushback over a foreign-born filmmaker representing France. The 2027 field is even more crowded with international names: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Cristian Mungiu and Asghar Farhadi all made films in France or with substantial French financing (Variety).
Zvyagintsev is no stranger to the Oscar race. His previous films Loveless and Leviathan both earned nominations, submitted under the Russian banner. Should France choose Minotaur, it would be his first Oscar campaign under a different flag. Variety's early 2027 Oscar predictions already list Minotaur as France's pick (Variety).
Other countries have moved faster. Germany selected Sandra Wollner's Everytime. Latvia, a minority co-producer on Minotaur, chose Ulya. Japan picked Hamaguchi's French-language All of a Sudden, which shared a Cannes best actress prize between Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, beating out a pair of Hirokazu Kore-eda contenders. Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light was shortlisted in both France and India but landed neither country's slot (Variety).
The committee's two-step September process will settle whether a Russian exile becomes France's standard-bearer in Hollywood — or whether the Grand Prize winner goes unsubmitted, again.
