Renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy makes entry into Oscars

Indo Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s upcoming film Funny Boy has managed to make its entry from Canada at the 93rd Academy Awards in the best international film category.

The director will be competing for the second time, if it gets selected.

Back in 2007, Mehta's film Water, the third feature in her Elements trilogy, managed to be Oscar-nominated in the international feature film category. Earth, being the first film, in the trilogy was followed 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 story explores the sexual awakening of its young protagonist Arjie (played by Arush Nand/Brandon Ingram) from a young boy, deemed 'funny' by disapproving family, to a teenager enamoured by a male classmate. The further happenings add up to the story.

"Eleven outstanding films were submitted this year, and we are confident that Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy will appeal to Academy members just as her powerful film Water did in 2007 when it was nominated in this prestigious category," said Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada, which chairs the pan-Canadian selection committee deciding the country's entry for the Oscars.

Mehta was raised in India's capital New Delhi and is now based in Toronto. The 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," she 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 and will be releasing the film theatrically in select cities as well as on streamer Netflix on December 10.