J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother) , the first feature from the young Quebec director-actor Xavier Dolan, will be Canada's official entry for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Telefilm Canada announced the choice after the film's strong showing at both the Toronto International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in the spring.
The 20-year-old director wrote and starred in the film about a teen who argues so much with his mother that she threatens to send him off to boarding school. At the heart of the film is the bond between mother and son, despite painful and even vicious exchanges.
Telefilm and the film's producers will now start an unofficial campaign to spread word about the film to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, to garner more interest and to increase the chance of it being chosen as one of the five eventual nominees for the foreign-language category. The list of nominees will be announced on Feb. 2. The Oscar will be handed out March 7.