Anatomy of a Fall has been one of the award season darlings. It's run has included pulling an upset win in Best Screenplay over the likes of Oppenheimer and Barbie and taking home Best Motion Picture, Non-English Language at the 2024 Golden Globes. Anatomy of a Fall is also one of the best-reviewed non-American movies of the year, including making What to Watch's top 10 movies of 2023 list.
It continued its run on January 23, as Anatomy of a Fall earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Justine Triet and Best Actress for Sandra Hüller. However, none of its nominations were for Best International Feature, which awards the best movie not made in America.
Why would an international movie that is receiving all these accolades not also be nominated for Best International Feature? Turns out there's a simple answer: it wasn't eligible.
On the surface, Anatomy of a Fall would seem like a slam dunk contender for the Best International Feature award at the Oscars. The intense courtroom drama won the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the top prize a movie can win there, it has a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was cited for similar awards by a number of critics groups in the final months of 2023 and is seen as a strong contender to land an Oscar Best Picture nomination.
Heck, even though director and co-writer Justine Triet's movie is primarily in English, with French also used throughout, the fact the category is Best International Feature instead of the previous name it had, Best Foreign Language Feature, means that wouldn't have hurt its chances.
But Oscar voters didn't even have the chance to vote on it because no country selected Anatomy of a Fall as its entry for Best International Feature this year. The country that could have selected it was France, but their nominating committee instead opted for the Juliette Binoche-led movie The Taste of Things.
Now The Taste of Things was no slouch. The movie, which centers on the relationship between a pair of chefs in the late 19th century, also won a big prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival (Best Director for Anh Hung Tran) and is also "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes (with a score of 99%).
Unfortunately, it seems the decision has come back to bite France. The Taste of Things was not nominated for Best International Feature. Meanwhile, The Zone of Interest showed the voters don't mind giving both a Best Picture and Best International Feature nod to movies, as that movie earned both. It stands to reason then that had Anatomy of a Fall been selected as France's entry, it would have earned a spot in the final five nominees.
Anatomy of a Fall is playing in select movie theaters in the US and UK and is available via digital on-demand in the US.
