UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE is Canada’s Choice in the race for Best International Feature Film at the 2025 Oscars® 

MONTRÉAL – Universal Language is representing Canada in the nomination process for Best International Feature Film at the 97^th Academy Awards^®, to be held on March 2, 2025. The film is directed by Matthew Rankin, written by Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati and Ila Firouzabadi and produced by Metafilms. It is being distributed in Québec by Maison 4:3, by levelFILM in the rest of Canada, and by Oscilloscope Laboratories in the US. International sales are handled by Best Friend Forever (BFF). 

“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,” says Julie Roy, Executive Director and CEO of Telefilm Canada. “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,” said director Matthew Rankin. “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).” 

Universal Language, which world premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, will have its North American premiere at TIFF on September 10, 2024. The film stars Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Pirouz Nemati, Mani Soleymanlou and Matthew Rankin.  

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 vote was determined by a pan-Canadian committee of industry organizations and guilds, as well as filmmakers and industry professionals appointed to represent organizations. Twenty-six films were submitted for consideration as Canada’s Choice this year. The committee met the morning of August 27^th to select the film. 

So far, nine countries have submitted their entries for the Best International Feature Film category. Last year, 88 countries submitted a film.  

Key dates: 

• October 2, 2024 – Deadline for country submissions for the Best International Feature Film category 
• December 17, 2024 – Academy shortlist of 15 titles selected to move forward.  
• January 17, 2025 – Academy Award^® nominations announced 
• March 2, 2025 – Academy Awards^® ceremony 

About Universal Language 

Synopsis  

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.  

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. 

Photos of the film here.  

About Canada in the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars®  

In the history of the Oscars^®, eight Canadian films have been official nominees in the Best International Feature Film (formerly known as the Best Foreign Language Film category): in 2013, Rebelle, by Kim Nguyen; in 2012, Monsieur Lazhar, by Philippe Falardeau and In Darkness, by Agnieszka Holland (a minority coproduction with Poland and Germany); in 2011, Incendies, by Denis Villeneuve; and, in 2007, Water, by Deepa Mehta. The list also includes three films by Denys Arcand: Le Déclin de l’empire américain, in 1987, Jésus de Montréal, in 1990 and, in 2004, Les Invasions barbares, the only Canadian film to have won the Oscar® in this category.  

About the selection process for the Best International Feature Film category  

Telefilm Canada coordinates and chairs the pan-Canadian Selection Committee, without voting right. The committee comprises some 10 members representing key government agencies and national film industry associations. Each of them may appoint a representative to the jury, in accordance with Academy rules. It is responsible for choosing the film that will represent Canada at the Oscars^®, which accepts only one film per country for the Best International Feature Film category.  

Academy rules were modified in 2023, specifying that juries must include a minimum of 50% craftspeople that are currently active in the film industry. Jury members must screen all submissions before participating in a virtual conference to evaluate and vote on which film will best represent Canada at the Oscars^®. Jurors are encouraged to consider the quality of the films, as well as their international competitiveness. 

Submitted films must have been produced outside the United States in a language of at least 51% other than English and must have been theatrically exhibited in the submitting country for at least seven consecutive days between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024.  

About Telefilm Canada  

As a Partner of Choice, Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation dedicated to the success of Canada’s audiovisual industry, fostering access and excellence by delivering programs that support cultural resonance and audience engagement. With a lens of equity, inclusivity and sustainability, Telefilm bolsters dynamic companies and a range of creative talent at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual coproduction treaties to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund. Launched in 2012, the Talent Fund raises private donations which principally support emerging talent. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on X at x.com/Telefilm_Canada and on Facebook at facebook.com/telefilmcanada.   

–30–   

MEDIA CONTACT