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In a fairly crowded field of contenders, “Drunken Birds” just grabbed the nod as Canada’s best international feature submission to the Oscars. The reasons why are almost immediately apparent on seeing Montreal-born Ivan Grbovic’s sophomore effort, co-written with cinematographer Sara Mishara. Though more modest in length and scale (not to mention star wattage),

Admittedly, that bold, confident surface sits on a framework of rather basic melodrama it can’t entirely disguise. But moment to moment, “Birds” is an impressive leap from the director’s debut, “Romeo Eleven,” a decade ago, signaling another French-Canadian talent perhaps ready to follow Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée onto a bigger career stage. Les Films Opale released the TIFF-premiered film to Canadian cinemas last month.

An initially baffling series of seemingly unrelated scenes — including a white tiger prowling a drug lord’s abandoned estate — gradually settle into the present-tense arrival of Willy (Jorge Antonio Guerrero...

These are the submissions for the international film Oscar by country. The deadline for entries was Nov. 1. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced Dec. 21 and the nominations will come out Feb 8. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre. The Academy has not yet released a final list of entries; Variety compiled this list from individual country’s announcements.

Albania

Two Lions Heading to Venice

Dir. Jonid Jorji

Key cast: Vasjan Lami, Alessandra Bonarotta

Logline: A pair of filmmakers heading to the Venice festival are sidetracked from their destination after meeting two adult film actors.

Prodco: Bajo Films

Algeria

Heliopolis

Dir. Djaafar Gacem

Key cast: Souhila Mallem, Mehdi Ramdani, Cesar Duminil

Logline: True story of an uprising in the Algerian town of Guelma that was violently put down by the colonial French rulers.

Prodco: Hewes Pictures

Argentina

The Intruder

Dir. Natalia Meta

Key cast: Guillermo Arengo,...

Drunken Birds, the migrant drama from Serbian Canadian director Ivan Grbovic that had its world premiere in the Platform section at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, has been selected by Canada as the country’s entry into the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

Written by Grbovic and Sara Mishara, the film (Les oiseaux ivres in French) centers on a quest for lost love that sends a man from Mexico to Canada, where he is hired as a seasonal worker. Fates intertwine, tensions grow, and moments of magical realism arise during the long workdays. Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Hélène Florent, Claude Legault, Marine Johnson, Maxime Dumontier, Amaryllis Tremblay, Karl Walcott, Yoshira Escárrega, Gilberto Barraza and Normand D’Amour star.

The film is produced by micro_scope and distributed by Les Films Opale. Wazabi Films is repping international sales. Drunken Birds was one of 10 films submitted to the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, Telefilm Canada said Monday.

Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Bird (Les Oiseaux Ivres) will represent Canada in the best international feature film category as its official Oscar submission.

Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO Christa Dickenson said on Monday (October 4) that 10 films had been submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee, adding: “Telefilm will support the film’s team on this exciting journey. This vote of confidence is a phenomenal springboard for these creators and a terrific opportunity for Canada to demonstrate the excellence of its film industry.”

‘Drunken Birds’: Toronto Review

Grbovic and Sara Mishara co-wrote the film produced by micro_scope. It premiered...

We start at the end—the end of a cartel. Men climb the walls to go inside the now abandoned estate, walking amongst paintings and sculptures before stripping naked to take a dip in the indoor swimming pool while a giant portrait of their unwitting (and now imprisoned) benefactor looks on. One decides to don a fur coat as he rifles through the papers sitting on the kingpin’s desk. He picks up a note and begins to read before discarding it out of boredom. The voice of its author, however, continues to speak. Talk of a shootout, love, and emancipation follow until the smooth swoop of a tarp covering an expensive car transports us back to the moment the letter was composed within. The present provides the past.

Writer/director Ivan Grbovic and co-writer/cinematographer Sara Mishara seamlessly take us back and forth through time so the romance at...

Die-hard grunge fan (and drug dealer) Fred (Noah Parker) tells Catherine (Kelly Depeault) she can’t play her Hole CD because Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. It’s a remark that was probably half joke and half memorial that leads into Keven (Robin L’Houmeau) dropping the necessary wisdom of knowing Love wouldn’t have been able to stop him if she tried. Cobain wasn’t a victim. He lived hard and walked a road of his own making to an end he ultimately embraced enough to pull the trigger. It’s the same type of lives these Québécois teens lead—mescaline, sex, rock-n-roll, and rage. So when Catherine replies with an “I don’t care” after being confronted about her fast-moving downward spiral, she isn’t being flippant. She truly doesn’t. She’s embraced the risks.

This is the reality many coming-of-age films forget. You need the complexity of...