Los Angeles: Acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s upcoming feature Funny Boy will represent Canada at the 93rd Academy Awards (Oscars) in the best international film segment. This is Deepa Mehta’s second time entrance in the category.
Mehta’s film Water, the third feature in her Elements trilogy, was Oscar-nominated in the international feature film category in 2007. The first film in the trilogy was Earth and the director followed it up with Fire. Funny Boy is an adaptation of author Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel of the same.
Set in Sri Lanka during the 1970s and 1980s, the film explores the sexual awakening of its young protagonist Arjie. It is played by Arush Nand/Brandon Ingram). It traces the journey of 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. We are confident that Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy will appeal to Academy members just as her powerful film Water did in 2007. We are sure it will attract attention,” said Christa Dickenson, executive director of ‘Telefilm Canada’.
Mehta, the New Delhi-raised, Toronto-based filmmaker, believes Funny Boy serves hope in the world full of divides.
“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,” Mehta said.
The film is co-written by Mehta and Selvadurai.
It was announced earlier this month, that Hollywood filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s ‘ARRAY Releasing’ has acquired Funny Boy. The movie will be releasing the film theatrically in select cities as well as on streamer Netflix, December 10.
