Two Latin American films will be competing for the Best International Feature at the 30th annual edition of the Gotham Awards presented by the Independent Film Project (IFP): the Brazilian film Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, and the Mexican film Identifying Features / Sin señas particulares by Fernanda Valadez.
Set in a few years from now in a small village in the Brazilian sertão, Bacurau starts as the town mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants (among them Sônia Braga) notice that their village has literally vanished from online maps and a UFO-shaped drone is seen flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed mercenaries led by Udo Kier arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one. A fierce confrontation takes place when the townspeople turn the tables on the villainous outsiders, banding together by any means necessary to protect and maintain their remote community. The mercenaries just may have met their match in the fed-up, resourceful denizens of little Bacurau.
Identifying Features, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and recently was awarded with top prizes at the Zurich, San Sebastian, and Morelia film festivals, tells the story of Magdalena (played by Mercedes Hernández), who sets out on a journey in search of her disappeared son en route to the U.S. border. Traveling through desolate towns and landscapes she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the U.S. who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena, looking for her son, and Miguel, eager to see his mother again, in a region where victims and aggressors ramble together.
Both Latin American films will be competing against the Russian film Beanpole, the French film Cuties / Mignonnes, the Italian film Martin Eden, and the Irish film Wolfwalkers for the Best International Feature. The winners of the 2020 Gotham Awards will be announced on January 11, 2021.
