France Picks Persepolis as Official Oscar Entry

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
By: Ramin Zahed

After receiving various festival honors around the world—including a special jury prize at Cannes—Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronanud’s black-and-white 2D animated feature Persepolis has been selected to represent France at the Academy Awards this year. The Sony Pictures Classic movie, is based on Satrapi’s acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel which chronicles a young girl’s experiences during the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Persepolis is slated to screen at the Ottawa International Animation Festival this week and will also close the New York Festival on October 14. Although Iran’s Islamic government was critical of the movie, the feature has been a hit with audiences and critics worldwide and has generated $9 million in ticket sales to date.

The French-language version of the movie is voiced by Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop will join Mastroianni and Deneuve in the English-language version. The pic was produced by Marc-Antoine Robert and Xavier Rigault of 2.4.7. Films, with Kathleen Kennedy exec producing. Sony Pictures Classics is slated to release the film in U.S. theaters on December 25. For more info about the movie, visit www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis.

Reader Comments

• H N : Cartoonist & Animator :

  Wednesday, September 19, 2007

  im an iranian cartoonist and i want to say that I prod of mrs marjan satrapi and have good hopes for her.
  Good lock Marjan!