Writer/director Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar hasn’t yet snagged one of five 2012 Best Foreign Language Film nominations at the Academy Awards in Hollywood, but the Quebec film has been booked down the road into the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The Oscar hopeful from Montreal producer micro_scope is one of 63 films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to be one of five possible finalists to be named on Jan. 24.

Before that crunch announcement, Falardeau’s award-winning drama will screen during Palm Springs’ 23^rd edition from Jan. 5 to 16 in the Awards Buzz section.

Monsieur Lazhar will also unspool next month in Sundance.

Then in February, Falardeau’s latest film, about an Algerian immigrant who restores calm to a Montreal classroom shaken by a suicide, will be released in English-speaking Canada.