Halina Reijn’s “Instinct” is joining the Oscar race. The Netherlands has selected the award-winning psychological thriller as its submission for the 2020 Academy Award in the International Feature Film category, a press release announced.
Set to make its North American premiere later this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Instinct” tells the story of a psychologist (Carice van Houten, “Game of Thrones”) who becomes “obsessed with a sex offender who appears to be ready to return to society,” according to its synopsis. The pic debuted at the Locarno Film Festival, where it took home the Variety Piazza Grande Award for its “artistic qualities and potential for theatrical release” and received a Special Mention for Best First Feature.
Other women-directed titles in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race include Mounia Meddour’s “Papicha,” repping Algeria, and Germany’s pick, Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher.” The former is set in the 1990s during the Algerian Civil War and tells the story of girlfriends who make money selling clothes, and the latter centers on a nine-year-old girl in the child welfare system.
Oscar nominations will be announced January 13, and the ceremony will take place February 9.
Check out a trailer for “Instinct” below.
