It’s official: Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy has been selected to represent Canada in the Best International Feature Film race for the 2021 Academy Awards.

Unveiled by Telefilm Canada today (Oct. 29), the Sri Lanka-shot-and-set film co-written by the director and Toronto-based Sri Lankan-Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai is based on the novelist’s 1994 coming-of-age book of the same name.

Produced by David Hamilton and Hussain Amarshi, the feature set in the 1970s and ’80s explores a young boy’s sexual awakening during the turbulent Tamil-Sinhalese conflict and marks Brandon Ingram’s feature film debut.

Supported by CBC Films, Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates, it also stars Nimmi Harasgama, Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi and Arush Nand.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Funny Boy would make its exclusive broadcast and streaming world premiere on CBC TV and CBC Gem on Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. Of note, the film was also recently acquired by filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s distribution label ARRAY Releasing and unveiled to debut on Netflix outside of Canada on Dec. 10.

Funny Boy signals Mehta’s second time being selected as Canada’s official entry for the section. Previously, the last entry in her Elemental Trilogy, Water, was picked, marking the first time a film in a language other than French had been chosen and went on to earn the Best Foreign Language Film nomination.

Last year, Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone was selected as Canada’s pick. Produced by Marc Daigle and Isabelle Couture of Association Coopérative des Productions Audio-Visuelles, the film written, directed and shot by Deraspe was a modern adaptation of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy.

Notably, Philippe Lacôte’s Côte d’Ivoire-Sénégal-France-Canada production La Nuit des Rois (Night of Kings) is the Côte d’Ivoire’s submission for this year’s Academy Awards.

The 93rd Academy Awards will take place on April 25, 2021.

Image of Mehta courtesy of Janick Laurent