Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur is France’s Oscar pick

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur has been selected to represent France at the 2027 Academy Awards after winning the Grand Prix at Cannes, but the exiled Russian director says he still feels like an outsider in his new home.

Zvyagintsev, 62, has made France his base, although he does not speak French and does not hold French citizenship. In an interview in Paris conducted in Russian, he said he felt like a “guest” in the country and added: “I don’t know whether I will ever belong here.”

Minotaur is his first feature produced in exile and marks his return to filmmaking after a nine-year absence. The film adapts Claude Chabrol’s La Femme Infidele and follows a ruthless businessman who suspects his wife of adultery against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine. It will be released in French cinemas on October 14.

The film won Cannes’ Grand Prix, the festival’s second-highest honour, behind Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord. Last month, it was chosen to represent France at the 2027 Academy Awards, ahead of Antonin Baudry’s The Battle of Gaulle.

Zvyagintsev said he understood criticism of the decision but was grateful to France’s Oscar committee. “It is a noble gesture to give way to another person who is, essentially, an outsider,” he said.

Shortly after the Oscar selection, Moscow designated Zvyagintsev a “foreign agent,” a label used by Russian authorities against critics and carrying legal restrictions and social stigma. Zvyagintsev said he did not yet know whether the designation would affect his life.

The director, known for Leviathan and Loveless, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin at Cannes to end the “carnage” in Ukraine. He later said Putin might no longer be able to stop the fighting quickly because of the momentum behind the war.

Zvyagintsev left Russia for emergency medical treatment in 2021 and stayed in Europe after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Asked whether he wanted to return, he said the Russia he sees today is not one he would want to go back to.