Romania chose Fjord as its Oscar submission for Best International Feature.
Cristian Mungiu directed the fraught drama.
Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as a couple under trial.
Cristian Mungiu's Fjord has crashed into the Oscar race. The drama pairing Oscar nominees Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, which swept the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, has been unaimously selected by the Romanian Film Center as the country's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. Reinsve and Stan play parents accused of child abuse.
Fjord Won Big At Cannes
As per the latest Academy rules, Fjord would have automatically qualified for Best International Feature even if it wasn't put forward by either Romania or one of the other countries that jointly produced the film: France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. A non-English language film can now be submitted for consideration by winning best film at a major film festival. Fjord premiered in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it also bagged the FIPRESCI Prize, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the Prix de la Citoyenneté and the François Chalais Prize.
Mungiu is a two-time Palme d'Or winner, having won earlier for his 2007 victory for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Neon boarded Fjord as its US distributor a year before it premiered in Cannes. With Fjord's victory, Neon continues an unprecedented seven-Palme winning streak that harks back to Parasite in 2019, followed by titles like Anora (the 2025 Best Picture winner). Four of those previous six winners — Parasite, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, and Anora — ultimately landed Best Picture nominations at the Oscars, with both Parasite and Anora winning big.
