Cambodia selects Angelina Jolie film as Oscar submission

NEW YORK – Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father” has been named Cambodia’s foreign-language submission to the Academy Awards.

The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee announced the choice Monday, calling Jolie’s Cambodian genocide drama “cathartic” and hailing it for bringing back memories “often best forgotten.”

Jolie directed the adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir about her childhood during the Khmer Rouge’s bloody reign. She shot it in Cambodia with a local cast.

Jolie, whose eldest son, Maddox, was born in Cambodia, has been a citizen of Cambodia since 2005. In an interview with the Associated Press, Jolie said she made the film to “help a country to speak.”

Jolie’s 2011 Bosnian War drama, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” was also nominated for best foreign-language film by the Golden Globes.