Montreal: Lea Pool’s coming-of-age movie Emporte-Moi, an international festival favorite, is Canada’s preselection choice for consideration in the Oscar’s best foreign film category.

Emporte-moi will compete against several prominent European releases including Alexandre Sokourov’s Moloch (from Russia and distributed in Canada by Motion International), Pedro Almodovar’s Tout sur ma mere (Spain/Blackwatch Releasing) and Regis Wargnier’s Est-Ouest (France/Alliance Atlantis),

The best foreign film short list will be announced Feb. 15, 2000 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Pool is currently prepping a new feature, Taxi pour la liberte, adapted from the novel of the same name by journalist Gilles Gougeon.

Emporte-moi has been sold in 20 countries and is a Canada/France/ Switzerland coproduction, coproduced in Canada by Cite-Amerique producer Lorraine Richard.