Indo-Canadian Filmmaker Deepa Mehta's 'Funny Boy' Becomes Canada's Entry For Oscars 2021
Best known for her Elements Trilogy - Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005), Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter's latest movie Funny Boy has been chosen as Canada's official entry for Oscars 2021.
The movie, which is an adaptation of author Shyam Selvadurai's 1994 novel of the same, has been submitted for the best international film.?This marks Mehta's second film competing in the category. Earlier, her film Water, the third feature in her Elements trilogy, was Oscar-nominated in the international feature film category in 2007.
"Funny Boy to me is about humanity and hope. It¡¯s about holding up a flag of inclusion, in a world tethering towards an abyss of the great divide. David Hamilton and myself thank the jurors across Canada who saw fit to support our film Funny Boy," Deepa Mehta said.?
The New Delhi-raised, Toronto-based filmmaker, believes Funny Boy serves hope in the world full of divides.
Set in 1970s and 1980s Sri Lanka, Funny Boy explores the sexual awakening of its young protagonist Arjie (played by Arush Nand/Brandon Ingram) from a young boy, deemed funny by disapproving family, to a teenager enamoured by a male classmate. As political tensions escalate to a boiling point between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese, the young boy comes of age in a society and family that doesn't embrace difference outside of societal norms.
"Eleven outstanding films were submitted this year, and we are confident that Deepa Mehta¡¯s ¡®Funny Boy¡¯ will appeal to Academy members just as her powerful film ¡®Water¡¯ did in 2007, when it was nominated in this prestigious category," said Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, which chairs the pan-Canadian selection committee deciding the country's entry for the Oscars.
The film is co-written by Mehta and Selvadurai.
