Switzerland is the first country out of the gate to select the film that will represent one of the almost 90+ film nation options in the category of Best International Film. The honor goes to Carmen Jaquier’s Thunder — a film that had its world premiere at the 2022 TIFF in the prestigious Platform section. Also known as Foudre, Jaquier’s sophomore feature has yet to secure a North American distributor – but this could change if the sales team find a small output deal. The Dekanalog folks picked this up.
As per Kevin Jagernauth, this was one of the better film offerings in the programme at TIFF – “cropping out the subject of the photo, who is churning butter on New Year’s Day, Jaquier zooms in on the nearly hidden face of the woman sitting off to the side: worn, defeated, and seemingly despondent. It’s against this unguarded honesty that Foudre (Thunder) rolls in like quiet storm, centering on a young woman’s spiritual and sexual awakening, as she pushes against the limited space women were expected to occupy in the early 1900s.”
Jaquier recently completed production on her third feature (technically completed before the pandemic) and shares the co-directing duties with Jan Gassmann. Les Paradis de Diane appears to be heavier dramatic terrain for the filmmaker – after the birth of her first child, Diane disappears in an unknown city, but her body reawakens her memories and what she is fleeing from. This will be launched in 2024 – perhaps Berlinale is in the cards.
We’ll update the chart the massive chart (and missing countries) as the weeks go by.
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Lebanon
Luxembourg
Mexico
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
North Macedonia
Norway
Pakistan
Palestine
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain:
Sweden
Switzerland: Foudre – Carmen Jaquier
Taiwan
Tajikistan: Melody – Behrouz Sebt Rasoul
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
