Lazhar, In Darkness, make Oscar shortlist

January 18, 2012

UPDATED: Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar has advanced to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the Academy Awards.

Also advancing forward is In Darkness, a Canada/Germany/Poland co-production by director Agnieszka Holland.

Both films made it successfully through the first phase, which saw several hundred films narrowed down to 63.

The group’s top six choices along with three additional selections voted on by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee make up the shortlist.

Committees in New York and L.A. will whittle the shortlist to five films through the weekend, and the final nominees will be announced live on Jan. 24 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Monsieur Lazhar is produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope and is distributed by Les Films Christal.

In Darkness is based on the true story of Leopold Socha, a Polish sewer worker and petty thief, who saves the lives of dozens of Jews in Lvov, Poland, by hiding them for 14 months in the sewers under the city.

The film is executive-produced by Christoph Fisser, Charlie Woebcken, Wojciech Danowski, and David F. Shamoon (who also wrote the script); produced by Eric Jordan, Leander Carell, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Patrick Knippel, Juliusz Machulski, Steffen Reuter, and Paul Stephens and production companies are SCHMIDTz KATZE FILMKOLLEKTIV, Studio Filmowe Zebra and Toronto-based The Film Works.

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