Oct 25, 2021

"Run Away" selected as Danish submission to the Academy Awards

Flee, the much-hyped animated documentary about an Afghan refugee, will represent Denmark in the Oscars' international feature film category, the Danish Film Institute has announced.

This means the film could be nominated in the category, which rarely sees animated submissions. Waltz with Bashir, representing Israel, became the first animated nominee for the award in 2009. There have been none since.

Flee is a Danish-French-Swedish-Norwegian co-production, with Denmark leading the production. It is the animation debut of Danish documentary maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen. The film is produced by Denmark's Final Cut for Real and animation studio Sun Creature, in co-production with Vivement Lundi!, Mer Film, and Mostfilm.

The film could theoretically also compete in the documentary feature and animated feature categories. It has done very well on the festival circuit, winning awards like the Cristal for a feature at Annecy and the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at Sundance. It is nominated for best documentary at the Gotham Awards.

Announcing the selection, Claus Ladegaard, CEO of the Danish Film Institute, said in a statement:

Denmark won the international feature film Oscar last year, with Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round.