Oscars: Estonia Selects 'November' for Foreign-Language Category

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be released in North America by Oscilloscope.

Estonia has selected November, directed by Rainer Sarnet, for the best foreign-language film race at the Oscars.


Based on the bestselling novel by Andrus Kivirahk, the film is set in an impoverished Estonian hamlet, mixing magic, black humor and romantic love and drawing on Estonian pagan and European Christian mythologies.


November was co-produced by Estonia's Homeless Bob Production, Poland's Opus Film and the Netherlands' PRPL and had its Estonian premiere in January.


The movie premiered internationally at this year's Tribeca Film Festival where it won the best cinematography award in the international narrative feature film category.


Independent U.S. distributor Oscilloscope acquired North American rights to November and will release it theatrically later this year.


November is Estonia's 15th foreign-language Oscar submission since 1992. In 2014, Zaza Urushadze's Mandariinid (Tangerines) was nominated for the foreign-language Academy Award, the country's only nomination in the category so far.