SKOONHEID SELECTED AS SOUTH AFRICA’S OSCAR ENTRANT

Skoonheid, the award-winning gay-themed South African film, has been chosen as the country’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

This according to the film’s director, Capetonian Oliver Hermanus, who posted on Facebook: “Skoonheid has been chosen as the South African entrant for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards. Gimme a ‘high five!'”

All countries are invited to submit what they consider to be their best film of the year, in a language other than English, for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences then select the five final nominations for the award from the submissions.

The announcement of Skoonheid’s submission comes on the heels of recent news that the film will be distributed in the US by TLA Releasing.

In August, Skoonheid scooped the Best South African Feature Film award at the 32nd Durban International Film Festival. In May, it became the first Afrikaans film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win the Queer Palm award.

Skoonheid tells the story of Francois (Deon Lotz), a ‘straight’, Afrikaans, middle-aged family man, who find himself increasingly obsessed with a friend’s beautiful 22-year-old son, Christian (Charlie Keegan).