Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione has been “told” that Abdellatif Kechiche‘s Blue Is The Warmest Color, the epic-length lesbo love story with the hot sex scenes that won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, will not be submitted as France’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Feature, and is therefore out of the race before it begins.

“Despite the difficulties of trying to woo some Academy voters with a lesbian love story with explicit sex scenes, the main reason I’m told it won’t make the cut is because [the film’s] French distributor, Wild Bunch, is not releasing it in time. The Oscar rep selection committee at the the CNC requires that a film go out nationally in France before September 30, and Wild Bunch has set an October release. Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval calls the rule ‘stupid’ but tells me they believe October is best for the picture. It’s my understanding that Sundance Selects will release Blue unrated later this year in the U.S.”

So that’s it — game over. An emotionally fascinating, deeply submersive love story that rocked the Croisette and got the whole town arguing is going to play stateside as a marginal sideline thing via Sundance Selects. Those who care will obviously see it and talk it up and tell their friends, but most of the palookas out there (not to mention the Academy blue-hairs) won’t even notice.