Actress Emmanuelle Riva arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP
LOS ANGELES — Michael Haneke’s brutal depiction of an aging couple, “Amour,” has won the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
It’s the second time an Austrian film has won the best foreign language film award, following “The Counterfeiters” in 2008.
Though “Amour” was Austria’s submission, it was a multinational production. The film’s German-born director is Austrian, but it’s in French and stars two French film legends, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
They play a loving, elderly Parisian couple, one of whom has a stroke. “Amour” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and received a total of five Oscar nominations, including best picture.
The other nominees Sunday night were Norway’s “Kon-Tiki,” Chile’s “No,” Denmark’s “A Royal Affair” and Canada’s “War Witch.”