The international Oscars race has begun. Ireland and Austria have put up their national contenders for the 2025 Academy Awards in the best international feature category. And the two movies could hardly be more different.
For its Oscar contender, Austria has selected The Devil’s Bath, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s inspired-by-history feminist horror film. Ireland has, unsurprisingly, gone for the craic, picking Rich Peppiatt’s cheeky doc-comedy Kneecap, about the real-life Belfast rappers of the title.
Franz and Fiala, known for their 2014 horror classic Goodnight Mommy and 2019’s The Lodge, explore a dark corner of history with The Devil’s Bath. Set in 18th-century rural Austria, it is inspired by the documented cases of depressed people, mainly women, who, terrified of the eternal damnation promised them if they committed suicide, instead chose to commit murder, often killing children, a crime that would allow them to repent and seek absolution in confession before their execution.
The film premiered in Berlin, where it won a Silver Bear for cinematographer Martin Gschlacht.
The Hollywood Reporter called it a “gripping psychological study by directors operating with formidable command.”
Shudder picked up The Devil’s Bath for North America ahead of it’s Berlin bow.
Kneecap tells a lightly fictionalized origin story for the band — made up of two working-class drug dealers (Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara) and a schoolteacher (DJ Provaí) — who rap mostly in Irish Gaelic and who combine Irish republican politics with raucous humor and a lot, a whole lot, of drugs. Irish Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender co-stars in the semi-fictionalized film which premiered in Sundance.
Sony Pictures Classics quickly snatched it up for domestic release.
The Hollywood Reporter called it “A craic-ing effort…. Think: The Jazz Singer (1927) but with a lot more ketamine; 8 Mile but set not long after an extended, bloody civil war had ended; or A Hard Day’s Night where every other word begins with the letter c.”
The deadline for submissions for the 96th Oscars is Nov. 14, 2024. The shortlist for best international feature contenders will be announced Dec. 17. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17, 2025. The 2025 Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 2.