Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds fresh from TIFF now Canada’s 2022 Oscar bid

by Screenmancer Staff

Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds (Les oiseaux ivres) fresh from a run at TIFF is now Canada’s official Oscar entry for 2022. Drunken Birds (2021) is his newest film, and since Grbovic had his first short at TIFF, a decade later the director’s work comes to rave reviews at the festival. Debut full-length feature, Roméo Onze from 2011 was screened at Tiff and marked his first appearance at the Festival. 

Grbovic was born in Montreal. With a master’s degree in cinematography from the AFI Conservatory (AFI), he worked as a DP for music videos before finding his way to filmmaking. The sometime TV commercial director then helmed short films La tête haute (2006), La chute (2009) and Les mots in 2009, then as mentioned, a feature film entitled Roméo Onze (2011).

Original titled Les oiseaux ivres, the cast includes Jorge Antonio Guerrero from Oscar winner ROMA, Hélène Florent as Julie, Claude Legault as Richard, and Marine Johnson as Léa. It is a love story against the backdrop of cartels in Canada.

The first draft for Drunken Birds was written 15 years ago,” according to the filmmaker. “It wasn’t supposed to be my second feature… my producers read the script and said, ‘let’s go, let’s do it now.” TIFF’s Ravi Srinivasan conducted the interview from which those quotes are culled.

This film will appear among the other official entries for the 94th Academy Awards presentation for 2022.

Find out more here.

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