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SPC Troops Pick up Maoz’s Lebanon

As of today, their top three consists of the Golden Lion winning film from Samuel Maoz (Lebanon), the Palme d’or winning Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon and Cannes’ Grand Prize winning Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet.

Eric Lavallée

Published on September 21, 2009

Sony Pictures Classics will likely not repeat their 2009 blunder. Neither the deservingly far-superior titles of Waltz with Bashir nor The Class walked away with the Best Foreign Picture win last year, but 2010 might favor the art-house specialist — they’ll have three titles and a “60 percent” chance at determining the final outcome.

As of today, their top three consists of the Golden Lion winning film from Samuel Maoz (Lebanon), the Palme d’or winning Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon and Cannes’ Grand Prize winning Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet. For the record, Israel hasn’t confirmed their entry, but I would have a difficult time imagining how Israeli Film Academy would choose any other film over the prestigious Golden Lion win.

Lebanon becomes the first major post-TIFF film pick-up and was the film that topped my charts among the 35 films I recently viewed at the festival.

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Eric Lavallée

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).