Rebelle (War Witch), directed by Kim Nguyen
The child soldier saga Rebelle has nabbed an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film, putting Canada in the race for Oscar glory for the third year in a row.
The nod is the first for Montreal filmmaker Kim Nguyen, who focused his lens on the grim lives of child soldiers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Rebelle, also known as War Witch, will face off against Austria's Amour, Norway's Kon-Tiki, Chile's No and Denmark's A Royal Affair.
Meanwhile, Toronto-based composer Mychael Danna is up for two Academy Awards — for best song and best original score for his work on Life of Pi.
Canada got a pair of nominations in the best live-action short category: the National Film Board is up for Buzkashi Boys, while Quebec actor Yan England is in the running for Henry.
The nominations were announced this morning from Los Angeles. The Academy Awards will be handed out Feb. 24.
Last year, Canada competed in the foreign-language category with Monsieur Lazhar, while Incendies was in the race the year before.
Nguyen worked on Rebelle over the course of a decade, inspired by an article about nine-year-old Burmese twin brothers who led an army of rebels.