Oscar nomination for Bullhead

Bullhead, the Belgian-Dutch co-production by director Michaël R. Roskam, is one of this year’s Oscar nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday 26 February 2012.

Bullhead (Dutch title: Rundskop) is a crime film about farmers and gangsters, set against the  backdrop of the Belgian ‘cattle hormone mafia’, but also shows the drama in the lives of ordinary people. ‘Bullhead is a grotesque tragedy about how chance sometimes interferes with our lives in more ways than we can deal with’, says Roskam about his film debut, which also stars Dutch actor Frank Lammers. Bullhead is a co-production of Dutch Waterland Film and Belgian Savage Film.

The press particularly praised the acting skills of leading man Matthias Schoenaerts, who offers a powerful Jacky Vanmarsenille, a young cattle fattener in the Belgian province of Limburg who comes under pressure from the ‘hormone mafia’. The widescreen scenes of the Flemish countryside, with its steaming cattle and dreary farmsteads, greatly impressed the juries abroad.

Bullhead (Rundskop) was also officially selected for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Previously the film was on the selection list of the European Film Awards and won awards at the film festivals of Beaune, Montreal and Zagreb.

The Academy Awards (Oscars) will be presented Sunday night on 26 February in Los Angeles.