A Russian-language film competing for the Oscars under French colours: the drama Minotaur, directed by dissident film-maker Andrey Zvyagintsev, has been selected to compete in the best international feature category.
The choice was made by a professional jury chaired by film historian Charles Tesson, “at the end of an independent process, overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences”, said (source in French) the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC).
Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, the film was produced by French companies MK Productions and CG Cinéma, with German and Latvian involvement.
_”_In a competition that promises to be of a very high standard, this choice is a reminder of France’s unique role in major global co-productions”, said CNC president Gaëtan Bruel.
The feature, loosely adapted from Claude Chabrol’s 1969 film La femme infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife), charts the collapse of a couple against the backdrop of the mobilisation decreed by Vladimir Putin in September 2022, seven months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As the gulf widens with his wife, who prefers a young photographer, Gleb, the head of a company, has to deliver some of his employees to the Russian army in order to meet the “quotas“ imposed in the regions and to spare the Kremlin from having to mobilise Muscovites.
As so often in his work, Zvyagintsev draws on myth. Like Aegeus, king of Athens, forced to send seven young boys and seven young girls to the Minotaur imprisoned in his labyrinth, Gleb is prepared to accept any compromise to keep his position.
A good choice for the Oscars?
Asked by Euronews about the film’s chances, essayist Jean-Philippe Domecq, a member of the editorial team of the journal “Positif”, published by the Institut Lumière, hails a “subtle and judicious” choice.
He says he was “deeply and lastingly impressed” by Zvyagintsev’s earlier work, notably Leviathan. “And here, the move to revisit ‘La femme infidèle‘, multiplying its ambiguity through the context of conscription, creates an immense grey area, the film’s dominant colour.”
According to the critic, the film is compelling “because it combines French involvement, through its producers, with an aesthetic and a plot that commit to nuance, as does art that does not lecture.“
The film’s reception has nonetheless not been free of criticism.
When he received the 2026 Grand Prix in Cannes, the director, now in exile in France, issued a direct appeal to Vladimir Putin to “stop the carnage“, without uttering the word Ukraine or explicitly mentioning Russia’s responsibility for this war of aggression.
_”_There is someone else I would like to address in person today,” the film-maker said in Russian. “Millions of people on both sides of the line of contact dream of only one thing: that the massacres will finally stop. And the only person who can put an end to this bloodshed is the president of the Russian Federation. The whole world is waiting for this.”
His speech was broadly welcomed in the West, but drew criticism in Ukraine and among anti-war Russian exiles.
Minotaur will be released in French cinemas on 14 October, distributed by Les Films du Losange. International sales are handled by MK2 Films and the film will be released in the United States by Mubi.
The 99th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on 14 March 2027 in Los Angeles.