MUMBAI: Next year‘s Oscar awards will have Jacques Audiard‘s A Prophet representing France as its submission for the foreign language Oscar this year. The film, a product of Why Not Productions won the Grand Prize at Cannes this year.

Starring newcomer Tahar Rahim, the film follows a young man as he is taken under the wing of the Corsican mafia during a prison stint. As he rises through the ranks, it becomes clear he has designs on creating his own network.

Cannes‘ festival director Thierry Fremaux along with Florence Malraux, president of the advance on receipts commission of the Centre National du Cinema (CNC), president of the Cesar Academy Alain Terzian; actress Jeanne Moreau, and directors Jean-Jacques Annaud, Costa-Gavras and Regis Wargnier were among members of the selection committee.

The film was released in France by UGC on 26 August. Celluloid Dreams handled sales while Sony Pictures Classics has the US rights.