Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet’s courtroom thriller about a writer accused of murdering her husband at their isolated mountain chalet, has won Golden Globes for best non-English language film and best screenplay. It is a triumph for French arthouse drama, which has been in decline in recent years.
Since winning the Palme d’Or (the awards’ biggest prize) at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023, Anatomy of a Fall has performed impressively well at the international box office. In the US, it earned nearly US$4 million (£3 million), becoming the highest-grossing foreign-language release since the pandemic, according to Neon, its US distributor. In the UK and Ireland, it became the first French-language title in over a decade to surpass £1 million at the box office.
Meanwhile, critics have lauded the film, with a 96% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Surprisingly, it is out of the running for this year’s Oscar for Best International Feature. The film was snubbed by France’s Oscar committee, with several French insiders suggesting “Triet is possibly being ‘punished’ for calling out the French government in her fiery political speech at Cannes”, according to Variety.
