Finland has selected Fallen Leaves, a droll romantic tragicomedy from veteran director Aki Kaurismäki, to represent the country in the 2024 Oscar race in the best international features category.
Fallen Leaves premiered in competition at the Cannes film festival this year, where it won the Grand Jury prize. A simple story of two lonely people (Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen) who meet each other by chance one night in Helsinki and stumble towards something like love, it is billed as the fourth film in Kaurismäki’s increasingly inaccurately-termed working-class trilogy, after Shadows in Paradise (1986) Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990).
This is the third time Finland has put Kaurismäki forward for the Academy Awards. His acclaimed feature The Man Without a Past was Oscar-nominated in 2003 and his 2006 follow-up, Lights in the Dusk was also picked to represent the country but missed the final shortlist.
Arthouse streamer MUBI has U.S. rights to Fallen Leaves, which it picked up shortly after its Cannes premiere.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the films on the 2024 Oscar shortlist on Dec. 21. The five nominees will be announced Jan. 23, 2024. The 95th Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024.
