German-Language Film 'Lore' Named Australia's Oscar Entry

SYDNEY -- Australian director Cate Shortland’s World War II drama,Lore, will be Australia’s entry in the best foreign film category in the 2013 Academy Awards, distributor Transmission Films announced Friday.

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The Australian-German co-production was shot in Europe and is principally a German-language film.

The film tells the story of Lore, who, after her Nazi parents are imprisoned, leads her younger siblings across a war-torn Germany in the closing days of World War II. Amidst the chaos, she encounters the mysterious refugee Thomas, who shatters her fragile reality with hatred and desire. To live, she must trust someone she was taught to hate and face her own anti-semitic upbringing. .

Australia’s two most recent foreign film Oscar entries were indigenous language films, Ten Canoes (2005) and Samson and Delilah (2010).

Lore will have its North American premiere on Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released in Australia on Sept. 20.

Lore was in competition at the Sydney Film Festival and recently won the Audience Award at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

The film is an adaptation of Rachel Seiffert's novel The Dark Room.

Its an official co-production by Roh Film, Porchlight Films and Edge City Films.  Producers are Karsten Stöter, Liz Watts, Paul Welsh and Benny Drechsel. Writers are Cate Shortland and Robin Mukherjee.  

Lore was financed by Screen Australia, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, HessenInvest Film, Filmförderungsanstalt, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medien-und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and Deutscher Filmförderfonds, in association with Screen NSW and Creative Scotland. The film was developed by Screen Australia and Creative Scotland.

 Lore is being represented internationally by Memento Films. Its U.S. distributor is Music Box Films.