22 French Productions and Co-Productions Make the 98th Academy Awards Shortlist

It’s that time of year again! As Hollywood gears up to celebrate the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its official shortlists in 12 categories, including Animated Short Film, Casting, Cinematography, Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Live Action Short Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Sound, and Visual Effects. The announcement precedes the full list of nominees, which will be revealed on January 22, 2026. 

French cinema is once again strongly represented this year, with 22 French productions and co-productions appearing across the Academy’s shortlists. 

France’s Official Submission: It Was Just an Accident 

Shortlisted for Best International Feature Film (France) 

Directed by Jafar Panahi, the Persian-language thriller follows Vahid, a former political prisoner who becomes convinced that a stranger he encounters late one night is the jailer who once tortured him. Joined by fellow ex-prisoners, Vahid kidnaps the suspect and drives him into the desert, triggering a tense moral reckoning that oscillates between doubt, confession, and the corrosive desire for revenge under an authoritarian regime. 

Filmed under restrictive conditions in contemporary Tehran, the film blends social realism with existential suspense. Since its premiere, It Was Just an Accident has received significant acclaim, including the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, as well as nominations at the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. The film follows last year’s French submission, Emilia Perez, which won two Oscars, for Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña) and Best Original Song (“El mal”). 

Click here for tickets.  

A Resident’s Voice: The Voice of Hind Rajab 

Shortlisted for Best International Feature Film (Tunisia) 

A remarkable contender is The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by 2022 Villa Albertine resident and filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. A hybrid documentary, the film retraces the final moments of a young girl trapped in Gaza through intercepted emergency calls and digital reconstructions. Merging journalistic testimony with immersive visual storytelling, it has stood out across multiple international film festivals. 

Click here for tickets.  

A Tribute to French Cinema: Nouvelle Vague 

Shortlisted for Cinematography 

Telling the behind-the-scenes story of Jean-Luc Godard’s iconic Breathless, Nouvelle Vague pays homage to the aesthetics and spirit of 1960s French cinema. With its stylized black-and-white imagery and innovative camerawork, the film reimagines the French New Wave ethos for today—a meditation on memory, rebellion, and image culture. 

Leading French Co-Productions on the Shortlist 

French-backed cinema features prominently across multiple categories this year.  

Sirât –Directed by Oliver Laxe 

Shortlisted for International Feature Film (Spain), Casting, Cinematography, Music (Original Score), and Sound

The drama follows a Spanish father who, accompanied by his son, travels to a remote rave in the mountains and deserts of southern Morocco in search of his missing daughter, Mar. As they circulate her photograph among crowds of ravers, they are drawn deeper into an unforgiving landscape. Set against a pulsing electronic soundtrack and an almost trance-like atmosphere, the journey becomes a harrowing descent, forcing father and son to confront grief, guilt, and their own physical and emotional limits. 

Sentimental Value – Directed by Joachim Trier 

Shortlisted for Best International Feature Film, Casting, and Cinematography

The Norwegian drama centers on two sisters, Nora and Agnes, who reunite with their estranged father Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, in the family home in Oslo, where past wounds resurface as he prepares an autobiographical film that blurs the line between memory and performance. 

Through intimate conversations, rehearsals, and small domestic moments, Trier explores inherited trauma, artistic legacy, and the fragile possibility of reconciliation without resorting to easy catharsis. 

The Secret Agent — Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho  

Shortlisted for Casting and Best International Feature Film

Loosely inspired by Joseph Conrad, the Brazilian political thriller follows Armando, a former professor turned underground operative during the military dictatorship, as he navigates surveillance, betrayal, and moral compromise while trying to flee an authoritarian regime. Premiering in Competition at Cannes 2025, the film became the festival’s most awarded title, with praise for Wagner Moura’s performance and Mendonça Filho’s sharp, atmospherically charged direction. 

Additional Titles Shortlisted

Additional titles shortlisted, include No Other Choice, Palestine 36, and Left-Handed Girl, reflecting a growing trend of Franco-European collaboration. 

In the documentary category, Amber Fares’ Coexistence My Ass!, co-produced by Little Big Story, appears on the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. 

Two French titles also have been shortlisted for Best Live Action Short Film: The Boy with White Skin by Simon Panay (Bandini Films), and Two People Exchanging Saliva, directed by the duo Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata (Misia Films).  

Animation in Full Force 

Ten French (co)productions have been shortlisted this year, showcasing animation in all its forms across both feature and short categories. 

Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, the following feature-length films are in the running: 

 Arco – Directed by Ugo Bienvenu 

Arco is a science‑fantasy adventure by Ugo Bienvenu in which a 10‑year‑old boy from an idyllic, distant future is accidentally propelled back to the year 2075 and discovers an Earth on the brink of ecological catastrophe. With the help of Iris, a girl his own age, and her robot companion, he embarks on a quest both to return home and to protect this threatened world, a story the director describes as an optimistic, hopeful fable about children imagining a brighter future for the planet. 

Animated Feature Films 

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane‑Cho Han 

Adapted from Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain follows a solitary child living in almost complete emotional withdrawal until a series of encounters gradually bring her out of her shell. Directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane‑Cho Han use a delicate, painterly animation style to echo Nothomb’s introspective prose, emphasizing, in their notes, the healing power of human connection and how imagination helps a child negotiate loneliness and family silence. 

A Magnificent Life – Directed by Sylvain Chomet 

Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life is an adult animated biographical drama exploring the friendship between writer‑director Marcel Pagnol and his fictionalized young alter ego Marcel. Mixing memory, fantasy and cinephile homage, Chomet crafts what he presents as a celebration of artistic vocation and southern French culture, using hand‑drawn animation to convey the joy and melancholy of storytelling across generations. 

Stitch Head – Directed by Steve Hudson 

Stitch Head is a monster fantasy comedy in which a small patchwork creature, created long ago by a mad professor in the castle of Grotteskew, quietly looks after newer, more spectacular experiments while remaining almost invisible to his maker. When a traveling circus owner discovers him and turns him into a star attraction, Stitch Head must choose between the applause of the outside world and loyalty to his fellow monsters, a tale that director Steve Hudson frames as a playful yet tender reflection on being seen, accepted, and valued for who you are. 

Animated Shorts 

Six other films have been shortlisted in the Animated Short Film category:  Autokar by Sylwia Szkiłądź (Miyu Distribution), Butterfly by Florence Miailhe (Xbo Films), Hurikán by Jan (Jean) Saska (Miyu Distribution), Playing God by Matteo Burani (Autour de Minuit), The Shyness of Trees by Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis d’Argentré, Lina Han, Simin He, Jiaxin Huang, Bingqing Shu and Maud Le Bras (Gobelins), and The Night Boots by Pierre-Luc Granjon (Pentacle Productions). 

With a strong presence across international feature, cinematography, documentary, short film, and animation categories, French cinema once again demonstrates its global reach and creative vitality. The full list of nominees will be announced on January 22, ahead of the 98th Academy Awards ceremony on March 15, 2026.