And the winner is... still not Switzerland
The film La Petite Chambre (The Small Room), Switzerland’s candidate for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, has failed to make the shortlist.
Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond’s tale about the circle of life was one of 66 films in the running, but it didn’t make it to the “long” shortlist of nine films announced on Thursday.
The five official Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, ahead of the Oscars ceremony on February 27.
The drama about a bereaved mother and a man she nurses is set in Lausanne. When deciding which Swiss film to put forward, a jury at the Delémont Hollywood festival said the work’s “original scenario, punchy dialogue and dramatic tension” had won them over.
Switzerland hasn’t won an Oscar for acting or directing for 20 years, since Xavier Koller won for his immigrant drama Journey of Hope, named Best Foreign Language Film in 1991.

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