What happened on September 21 at the France's National Cinema Center (CNC)? What should have been a formality – sending the Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall to the Oscars – turned into a fiasco. The film chosen by the CNC to represent France in the Best International Feature Film category, La Passion de Dodin Bouffant (The Taste of Things), did not end up being selected by the American Academy, yet Justine Triet's film was nominated in five categories and has already won the European Film Prize, two Golden Globes and three Lumière awards.

After the first round of discussions on September 14, the seven members of the CNC-appointed committee – producers Charles Gillibert and Patrick Wachsberger (Wachsberger participated by videoconference), filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Mounia Meddour, exporters Sabine Chemaly and Tanja Meissner, and composer Alexandre Desplat – met again on September 21 for a second vote. Dominique Boutonnat (president of the CNC) and Gilles Pélisson (president of Unifrance, the organization responsible for promoting French cinema abroad) were also present, but only as "observers."

Gillibert, Wachsberger and Assayas were left stunned. They had voted for Triet's film, but La Passion de Dodin Bouffant, by Tran Anh Hung, won by one vote. Gillibert, producer of Mustang, which represented France at the Oscars in 2016, and an expert on the American market, tried to understand how they had arrived at this decision. "There was no debate. On the other side, nobody tried to convince me." Assayas fought tooth and nail for Anatomy of a Fall: "I personally felt very badly about it. And I immediately told the CNC officials who were there." He added: "I'm so sorry that the film by Tran Anh Hung, a filmmaker I respect and who I consider a friend, has been embroiled in a dispute that had nothing to do with it."

The other four members who chose La Passion de Dodin Bouffant were apparently convinced by the "French nature" of the film, a gastronomic romantic costume drama whose English title was almost Pot-au-feu. This strategy of timeless France and its meat-wine-cheese trinity, was dictated by an "old-fashioned view" of the American market, lamented Variety magazine in one of its many articles devoted to the CNC's "dysfunctional committee," which described French cinema as a "small village where a handful of talent agents and studios pull all the strings."

"This outdated approach might have worked 15 years ago, but today we're in an extremely competitive industry, with seasoned professionals and a new college of voters," Gillibert pointed out. Since 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that awards the Oscars, having been accused of being too white and too male, has recruited women, minority figures and filmmakers from over 50 different countries.

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