October 30 – Canada has picked Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s coming-of-age novel of the same name, to represent the country in the 2021 Oscar race in the international feature category.
Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing has already sold the Sri Lanka-set drama to Netflix for a Dec. 10 bow. The indie, which stars Brandon Ingram, Nimmi Harasgama, Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi and Arush Nand, will also bypass movie theaters are it premieres on the CBC network in Canada on Dec. 4.
Shot on location in Sri Lanka and set in the 1970s and ’80s, Funny Boy portrays a young boy named Arjie growing up as political tensions escalate to a boiling point between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese. He comes of age in a society and family that does not embrace differences outside of societal norms.
Funny Boy is co-written by Mehta and Selvadurai and is produced by David Hamilton and Hussain Amarshi.
The 2021 Academy Awards will take place April 25, 2021. The Oscar nominations will be announced on March 15.
Source – The Hollywood Reporter
