Academy rejects Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy as Canada’s Oscar entry According to the Academy, a feature cannot contain more than 50 per cent English to be eligible in the best international film category. By: PTI | Los Angeles | December 20, 2020 3:07:24 pm Funny Boy is an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai's 1994 novel of the same. (Photo: ARRAY/Netflix) Acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, which was Canada’s submission for best international film at the 93rd Academy Awards, has been rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (AMPAS) on the grounds that it contains too much English dialogue. Set in Sri Lanka during the 1970s and 1980s, Funny Boy explores the sexual awakening of its young protagonist Arjie (played by Arush Nand/Brandon Ingram) from a young boy, deemed “funny” by disapproving family, to a teenager enamoured by a male classmate.